With the viral publication of a fed-up former Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith, “Why I am leaving Goldman Sachs“, following a couple pieces from one of America’s few remaining muck-raking journalists, Matt Taibbi - our banker demon overlords seem to be having a fairly rough week. No need to cry for them tho, Goldman paid approximately 1% in income taxes on a profit of over $2.8 billion in 2008, they’re all doing just fine, to say nothing of the federal bailouts. Tho some of the bankers’ bonuses have been capped at only $125,000, according to some reports - of course Goldman hasn’t issued such a cap. Recall that in 2006, the last “pre-crisis” year at Goldman, the CEO Lloyd Blakenfein, was awarded a bonus of $68 million.
J.P. Morgan Chase’s Ugly Family Secrets Revealed, by Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone
In a story that should be getting lots of attention, American Banker has released an excellent and disturbing exposé of J.P. Morgan Chase‘s credit card services division, relying on multiple current and former Chase employees. — Matt Taibbi.
In an age when elitists rent out entire Aspen hotels for Bat Mitvahs, and then land cushy Goldman Sachs executive jobs soon after, we all need to step back and take a critical look at the incestuous usury and investment businesses and see them for what they’ve morphed into – nepotistic, true vulture capitalists who are never satiated, and who will never have enough, no matter the true costs. One may argue these types cannot even comprehend what the concept of “enough” is – it’s only more more more. Never before has capital exploited in such an shameless, over-reaching and omnipresent manner. The same week where Mitt Romney proclaims that, “Yeah, I made a lot of money and I’m not going to apologize for that,” which followed his statements about his good friends who own Nascar and Football teams – this is the guy who killed Kay-Bee Toys (and lots of other businesses), laying off thousands, in the pursuit of profit. Tiabbi says of Jeffrey Verschleiser, a former Bear Stearns executive who was instrumental in the failing of that firm, who threw the raging Bat Mitvah,
“So this guy, who made the news both for his professional unscrupulousness and for his personal assholedom, is the guy that Goldman picks to head its global mortgage operation.”
Of course he is, those are the exact qualities Goldman desires. We can see from this hire and the exposé from the exit comments by the fleeing Goldman executive Greg Smith, that Goldman is devolving at a fairly rapid rate. One can hope they’re circling the drain, which may help explain their increasingly delusional unethical and lunatic behavior a bit, but that’s not likely. These guys still hold nearly all the cards. Fleeing, former Goldman executive has this to say about Goldman’s priorities:
I attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It’s purely about how we can make the most possible money off of them.
Nature always wins, eventually
The appetite of these fascist (usually) men seems insatiable. They will consume ever more and more, externalizing costs along the way, socializing risk (bailouts for billionaires?!?), privatizing profits, and recommending that we turn true former social conventions into corporate-run, for-profit businesses: healthcare, penal system, space flight, education, national defense, and on and on. This type of action leads us back to the days of fire marks, where the fire department won’t save you or your property, unless you have their specific fire mark (which is sold by an insurance company, of course – see: wikipedia article on fire marks) nailed to the front of your home. We’ve evolved from that paradigm – realizing we’re all in this together, and we need to be able to lean on one another to get threw times of trial – no one really disputes this. It’s rare to hear anyone argue for a return to fire marks. Regressing back to the ways of the past, just so the few on the top of the pyramid can rake in extra profits, and remain “safe” – seems to no longer be a viable option. People are waking up to the reality they find themselves in, where a tiny fraction of the populace is illegitimately pulling the strings and reaping the rewards.
A generation has passed where the wealthy have seen their tax rates get progressively lower and lower; in the 1950′s the rich paid over 80% in income taxes on income over $200k (a LOT back then), and that’s when we financed the missions to the moon, and had a rising standard of living, for all. Even as recently as in the 1980′s the rich were paying 70% on income over $215k – a vast difference to the some mid ~30%, which they pay now, and that’s only if they play by the rules – hire some creative accountants, get an offshore tax-haven, and there are lots of cases where they pay 0%, or even get refunds. Regression of this sort will likely crash us, it creates a truly non-sustainable world which eventually will meet its match: Nature. This planet has limits, no man is an island, and those with the resources need to share – these are facts which need to be absorbed by the collective, and included into policy. The sooner society realizes these concepts and incorporates the lessons learned, the better chance of survival. We simply cannot consume, hoard, and exploit our way into prosperity and equality.
