2009 July, 14th

Phil Butler

News today investment firm Goldman Sachs had unprecedented earnings at a time when everyone else in the world is suffering is not surprising. We did an earlier related to the US Government’s “bailout” of GS and other entities in which there was some implication of at least “interesting” ramifications. Goldman Sachs just announced earnings of $3.4 billion for the second quarter, far in excess of even the most enthusiastic Wall Street predictions. In so doing, perhaps Sachs is giving the world a glimpse of how Wall Street is not only a big cause of our problems, but arrogantly unconcerned how they are perceived a this point. Only as little while ago the investment house was “needy”, and now magically or through some Wall Street wizardry, they are solvent?

Does anyone out there wonder where the trillions in debt, or the trillions in losses in revenue goes when it is lost? Just a curiosity to me that perhaps someone can answer. You see, there is the principle of physics that sticks in my mind, “No matter ever disappears, it is just transformed.” If this writer is not plain stupid, the same principle would logically apply to something as tangible a money too. GM goes bankrupt, along with just about everyone else, while Goldman Sachs magically outperforms everyone on the planet? You will note all the question marks I am typing, and the reason is that I want the reader to start asking some questions, like – HOW? I am not the only one ranting about this “follow the money” idea, which skeptics seem to be warming up to. Here is a direct quote from the NYT’s Barry Ritholtz’s recent post:

“On Wall Street, where money is the ultimate measure, Goldman is both revered and reviled. Its bankers and traders are sometimes referred to as the Bandits of Broad Street. An executive at a rival bank characterized Goldman traders as “orcs,” the warlike creatures of Middle Earth in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.”

Even mainstream America is taking notice. An article about Goldman in a recent issue of Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi, characterized Goldman as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Goldman dismissed the article as the ramblings of conspiracy theorists.”

When Vampires Appear In Daylight

Okay, even if I am a conspiracy theorist, wouldn’t someone like to know where nearly $13 Trillion dollars in US Debt went to? Yeah, that is 13,000 billion dollars in US securities held by everyone from China to Great Britain. This is an item for another more in depth article. But for the sake of this one let’s just use some “Good Ole Boy” logic if it is okay. In the movie “All the President’s Men”, I believe it was Deep Throat who said; “Follow the Money”, referring to the trail leading to those culpable in the Watergate scandal. No where have I seen anyone trying to follow a money trail to or from any of these Wall Street sharks, at least in the news.

Goldman Sachs Offices

The problem for Sachs, as illustrated by the Rolling Stone article, will at least amount to public perception of what is going on behind their gilded doors. A quote from Tiabbi seems more appropriate than anything else in illustrating at least one of the problems in “corralling” beasts capable of, at the very least, instilling fear and doubt as to their intentions or nature (referring to Sachs and others like George Soros).

“If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.”

So, when Vampires like Sachs and others no longer fear the daylight. When their arrogance supersedes even a normal PR fostered fear of public opinion, and announcing record profits to those “eating cake” becomes “just business”, what is this or any writer to think? Sachs Goldman makes money from other people losing it of course, but the question is; “Who’s money and livelihood is really being lost?” Is there some sort of Reaganomics of trickle down money theory going on here? Will Goldman Sachs prop up even the US Government eventually? If things go the way they are now, this is certainly a possibility. I just want people to start thinking about these things in earnest. George Soros makes a billion or two while everyone else loses. Sachs Goldman follows suite just months after begging for billions to pay off selected fund friends? Is anyone watching the hen house?

I will leave off this conspiratorial lambasting for now, and go to some Google research on the money trail. For now, I suggest everyone in America and around the world start doing their own version of conspiracy thinking, before someone leverages what is left of their American Dream. See the interview with Rolling Stones’ Matt Taibbi.

• 2010/01/21 -- Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, Choose Your Shark [update]
• 2009/10/22 -- Wall Street’s Part In the Murder of the World Economy
• 2009/11/30 -- Forbes 2009 CEO List and the Outrage We Should Feel
• 2009/10/20 -- You’re In Good Hands With Wall Street
• 2009/03/25 -- Obama, The Body Language of Truth
• 2009/01/28 -- Waggener Edstrom – Being Second Means “Trying Harder”
• 2010/01/16 -- Espionage On the American Orient Express

About the Author

Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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