Maybe having friends in high places is just part of their business strategy. Not saying its right, just saying. Also I thought the TARP was forced on them (and others), so it wouldn't single out the genuinely ailing pos banks. Surprised that everyone is always angry at Goldman, and not at AIG for selling CDS's without provisioning appropriately for them, or at the government for giving and printing away money that we individual schmucks have to work our asses off for. Let's pretend I'm a grain merchant, and I have a contract with a farmer to buy his grain at harvest. I don't know this, but the farmer sold WAY more grain than he could ever expect to grow, but somehow gets away with it every year by buying spot grain and delivering to his counterparties. Suddenly there's a drought, and spot grain is really expensive (he canât afford it). The Farmer really fucked up, and as a grain merchant I am suffering a counterparty risk event (which maybe I should have planned for?). SO NOW: some government dipstick, out of the blue, decides to screw all the citizens (by taxing them, indebting their children, diluting their saving by creating money or all of the above) and back this farmer. I happen to get my grain, since Iâd bought it 6 months ago, and the farmer now has $$$. However, now everyone is pissed at me, and opining freely about my business, my compensation structure, etc. Wait a minute! WTF? Why are you mad at me, and not the Farmer (who seriously fucked up), or at the government dipstick that is screwing everyone????? Not saying GS is squeaky clean by any means, but come onâ¦
I hope this is blatantly obvious. But just to be clear, that is not capitalism. That is corporate feudalism, theocracy, monarchy. They don't make money, they just take it from the masses. TARP was not forced on anyone, that is pure nonsense. Any bank that did not want it, especially after participation, simply paid it back ASAP. I don't see Goldman or BoA or Morgan doing the same, they just talk about it every other month. The whole AIG debacle is just a scam, a con job. If you try this in the markets, you would be forced into bankruptcy. If your defaults caused damage to the credit & monetary system, you would be getting jail time instead of TARP money. If these bunch of crooks want to play these games with each other and get nice bonuses out of it, that is fine. Not my money, I am not a shareholder and would never be. The problem, is that against my will, your will and the vast majority of the taxpayers, our money is being funneled to them.
There is one very strong positive about GS.... They assist in creating supply for trading purposes.... Thank you, GS....
some people say that GS provides 30% of all trading volume on any given day with their liquidity program...