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Goldman Sachs has played a crucial role in creating every market bubble since the 1920s -- and has profited from not only the bubbles, but from the crash that followed as well, says a new expose in Rolling Stone magazine.

An article in the July 9-23 issue of the magazine, written by Matt Taibbi, lists five asset bubbles that the 140-year-old investment bank helped create -- and one that Taibbi asserts the firm is currently working to make happen.

The five bubbles the article says Goldman was central to creating are the Wall Street stock bubble in the 1920s, which led to the Great Depression; the tech-stock bubble of the late 1990s, which ended in the 2001 recession; the housing bubble of the past decade, which resulted in the current economic crisis; the oil price run-up last summer, when oil shot up to $140 a barrel, likely helping tilt the entire world into recession; and what Taibbi describes as "rigging the bailout," when Goldman Sachs' well-placed alumni inside the U.S. government engineered last fall's bank bailout in such a way that the company profited massively.

Taibbi writes that Goldman Sachs has traditionally been a late arrival to market bubbles, getting in once others have started the trend, but, once in, the company quickly ramps up the bubble, predicts its bursting, and then hedges its bets so as to make money from the bubble crash.

The article, adds one more bubble to the list: the "global warming bubble," or specifically, the proposed cap-and-trade legislation that would allow companies to trade pollution credits on an open market.

Taibbi's argument suggests the Wall Street bank may well want to turn climate change policy into yet another Wall Street casino game.

Because emissions caps will continually be reduced, Taibbi argues, pollution credits will constantly be growing in value, and Goldman Sachs wants in on the ground floor.

Taibbi writes: "The plan is (1) to get in on the ground floor of paradigm-shifting legislation, (2) make sure that they're the profit-making slice of that paradigm and (3) make sure the slice is -- a big slice. Goldman started pushing hard for cap-and-trade long ago, but things really ramped up last year when the firm spent $3.5 million to lobby climate issues."

On his blog, Taibbi has begun a discussion of the public reaction to his article. Some commenters have suggested that Taibbi's understanding of high finance is limited, accusing him of misreading Goldman Sachs' actions.

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"'We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq,' Ma'ariv quoted the former prime minister as saying. He reportedly added that these events 'swung American public opinion in our favor.'"
-Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Haaretz, Netanyahu says 9/11 terror attacks good for Israel, 16 April 2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/975574.html

"The FBI has issued a BOLO on suspected terrorists driving a white delivery van from New York City to the Mexican border. The suspects are using Israeli passports. They are armed and dangerous."
-Knox County TN Emergency 911 Dispatch, Sept 11, 2001, 11am EST
www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0622-05.htm
www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/fiveisraelis.html

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"I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks.”
—Usama bin Laden, CNN, "Bin Laden says he wasn't behind attacks," September 17, 2001
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/inv.binladen.denial/

"We've never made the case, or argued the case that somehow Osama bin Laden was directly involved in 9/11. That evidence has never been forthcoming."
—Dick Cheney, "Interview of the Vice President by Tony Snow", March 29, 2006
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060329-2.html

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What you need to know is the big picture: 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.

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(Reuters) - The purported theft of a Goldman Sachs (GS.N) trading platform threatens to cost it millions of dollars, a prosecutor told a court, but so far the bank has not reported damage to its business.

Questions were raised about the security of proprietary trading systems at a court hearing on July 4 for a former Goldman computer programer arrested on a charge of stealing the information, which was copied to a server in Germany. If the stolen information, or trading code, is allowed to go to a competitor who can start trading with it, "the bank itself stands lose its entire investment in creating this software to begin with, which is millions upon millions of dollars," warned U.S. prosecutor Joseph Facciponte, according to a transcript of Saturday's proceeding. He added that because of the way this software interfaces with the various markets and exchanges, the bank has warned it could be used to "manipulate markets in unfair ways."

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Originally posted by SignyM:
But they would NEVER do that.

Would they?

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The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: 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.

They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They've been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s — and now they're preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc said quarterly earnings surged 33 percent on blowout trading results, trouncing forecasts and putting the bank on pace for hefty bonuses that could draw unwanted scrutiny.

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The results continued Goldman's extraordinary rebound from a near meltdown of the U.S. banking industry last fall that led to a $125 billion taxpayer bailout for its largest members. Goldman set aside $6.65 billion for salary, bonuses and benefits in the quarter, up by nearly half from the quarter ended in May last year. That puts the average Goldman employee on pace to earn more than $900,000 this year. Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, senior officers and star traders will likely receive tens of millions of dollars.

The U.S. government wanted "to make sure that the banks are making money, so they do make money," said Francis Campeau, a broker at MF Global Canada in Montreal. "The flip side is now one could argue they're making too much."

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by SignyM:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc said quarterly earnings surged 33 percent on blowout trading results, trouncing forecasts and putting the bank on pace for hefty bonuses that could draw unwanted scrutiny.

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The results continued Goldman's extraordinary rebound from a near meltdown of the U.S. banking industry last fall that led to a $125 billion taxpayer bailout for its largest members. Goldman set aside $6.65 billion for salary, bonuses and benefits in the quarter, up by nearly half from the quarter ended in May last year. That puts the average Goldman employee on pace to earn more than $900,000 this year. Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, senior officers and star traders will likely receive tens of millions of dollars.

The U.S. government wanted "to make sure that the banks are making money, so they do make money," said Francis Campeau, a broker at MF Global Canada in Montreal. "The flip side is now one could argue they're making too much."

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Didn't Bernie Madoff claim earnings like that? Actually, I don't think even his claims were THAT outrageous, and he's still convicted of running a Ponzi scheme! How long before Goldman is found to be doing the same thing?

Mike

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
Can I have all your federal reserve ponzi notes, then? Since they're not money and they're not real, will you just give them all to me?

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
So you DO agree that they have value!

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Originally posted by SignyM:
In the past ten years, gold has been as low as $250/ oz and as high as $1000/ oz, more volatile than the value of the US dollar. I don't see anything "intrinsic" in the value of gold, as it seems to be subject to wild speculative swings. Gold, as an investment, is like anything else. It goes up. It goes down.

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...like gold , are being valued in ever-shifting , ever-manipulated Federal Reserve 'dollars'...

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Intrinsic value is what you can do with something.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Do you suppose that you can argue your point w/o being insulting, or is that impossible?

Gold has an "instrinsic" value. It is a wonderful conductor which doesn't tarnish. Silver is a fantastic dinsinfectant: silver water-purifying filters are worth their weight in... uh, salt. Salt ALSO has an intrinsic value. "Back in the day", when people far-removed from the ocean had a hard time getting salt, it was extremely valuable. There was a plant used for birth control which had its own intrinsic value, and was part of the currency. Intrinsic value is what you can do with something.

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Insulting ? You mean , as when you call a woman that you disagree with the Anglo-Saxon 'c' word derived from the Latin cunnus,
or when you call Ron Paul an 'idiot' ? Being that Dr. Paul is plainly smarter than you , that doesn't leave you in such a good place , now does it ?

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Back on topic:

The Scandal Continues: The Billions in Govt. Cash Behind Goldman's "Profits"

By Matt Taibbi, True/Slant. July 17, 2009.

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That Goldman Sachs is getting away with robbery is bad enough -- that they're getting praised for being so smart is damn near intolerable.
"Equity underwriting boomed during the period as dozens of banks raised money to strengthen capital and repay Troubled Asset Relief Program funds. The business reported record revenue of $736 million.via Article - WSJ.com."

So what’s wrong with Goldman posting $3.44 billion in second-quarter profits, what’s wrong with the company so far earmarking $11.4 billion in compensation for its employees? What’s wrong is that this is not free-market earnings but an almost pure state subsidy.

Last year, when Hank Paulson told us all that the planet would explode if we didn’t fork over a gazillion dollars to Wall Street immediately,

...It turned out not to happen that way. We constructed this massive bailout infrastructure, and instead of pumping that free money back into the economy, the banks instead simply hoarded it and ate it on the spot, converting it into bonuses. So what does this Goldman profit number mean? This is the final evidence that the bailouts were a political decision to use the power of the state to redirect society’s resources upward, on a grand scale.

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www.alternet.org/workplace/141417/the_scandal_continues%3A_the_billion
s_in_govt._cash_behind_goldman%27s_%22profits%22/

AMEN!

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

At one time or another, nearly everything has been "valuable" - not necessarily because it had any actual or "real" worth, but because there was a hot market for it. Even rocks. Remember Pet Rocks?

And yes, even gold has seen its value rise or tank solely dependent on whether it was deemed to be "in style" at a certain point or not.

Mike

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Originally posted by SignyM:
I've known for decades that the rich conspire to swindle everyone else, that massive concentration of wealth can only be the result of theft and fraud. If you haven't figured that out, you haven't read any of my posts over the last four or five years. What I find interesting is GOLDMAN SACHS being pinpointed among all of the other potential candidates for the "swine of the century" nomination.

I even think that modern banking is intrinsically dishonest. Where you and I differ is the "Fed and fiat money is at the root of all evil" mantra. Collapses have occurred as far back as during the Roman Empire and the French monarchy of Louis XIV, long before fiat money was invented. The root of the problem seems to be deeper.

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Originally posted by SignyM:

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Insulting ? You mean , as when you call a woman that you disagree with the Anglo-Saxon 'c' word derived from the Latin cunnus,
or when you call Ron Paul an 'idiot' ? Being that Dr. Paul is plainly smarter than you , that doesn't leave you in such a good place , now does it ?

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Is this what you do when you have nothing of substance to say? Resort to insulting and demeaning anyyone who disagrees with you, without ever addressing the topic?

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So you are denying having made those statements ?

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Being that Dr. Paul is plainly smarter than you

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Being that Dr. Paul is plainly smarter than you...

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Originally posted by rue:
And finally, do you have anything to say ON TOPIC. I'm guessing not.

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Originally posted by SignyM:

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So you are denying having made those statements ?

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Do you recall that I used the word c*nt to illustrate what I usually DON'T do? I even followed up that post with an explanation about what I was trying to demonstrate. So be a dear. Find that post and refresh your memory.

Also, Ron Paul IS an idiot.

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Being that Dr. Paul is plainly smarter than you

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Sure. Right.

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'...In any case, Paul’s proposal to audit the Fed would bring central bank operations more under the control of politicians, who supposedly would be able to expose unpopular goings-on and unexpected losses in the Fed’s operations. That’s why it has attracted bipartisan support.'

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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'...In any case, Paul’s proposal to audit the Fed would bring central bank operations more under the control of politicians, who supposedly would be able to expose unpopular goings-on and unexpected losses in the Fed’s operations. That’s why it has attracted bipartisan support.'

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Okay, so in your DEFENSE of Ron Paul, and in your efforts to show us all how SMART he supposedly is, you post THIS? You post something saying that Ron Paul wants to give POLITICIANS more control over the Fed?

Yeah, THAT sounds like a recipe for getting things under control. Remember, it's the POLITICIANS who have spent us into this mess, and who have been behind the deregulation AND the regulations that got the Fed where it is now.

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Ron Paul's efforts to 'Audit' the 'federal reserve' are motivated by a desire to expose the flaws and deceptions that are integral to its modus operandi...

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Once that is done , public outrage may be directed to the goal of abolishing the Federal Reserve .

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Next time , you may want to try reading in some depth before your reflexive effort to go 'postal'.

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No wonder your wife nicknamed you 'kwicko'.

It probably wasn't intended as a term of endearment , or a compliment...

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

So that's how I became Kwicko.

Now I'm trying to figure out why YOUR wife nicknamed you "out2theblack".

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So, do you deny making {those statements}?-O2B
Do you recall that I used the word c*nt to illustrate what I usually DON'T do? I even followed up that post with an explanation about what I was trying to demonstrate. So be a dear. Find that post and refresh your memory.-Signy

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Originally posted by out2theblack:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

So that's how I became Kwicko.

Now I'm trying to figure out why YOUR wife nicknamed you "out2theblack".

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Long wait for a train that ain't coming...

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
This threat is showin clear signs of space dementia, all paranoid and crochety n stuff...


-F

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