goldman sachs

The Final Word on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP)

In a recent column by Glenn Greenwald at salon.com, titled, Mike McConnell, the WashPost & the dangers of sleazy corporatism, Glenn explains the seamless movement between the overt American intelligence establishment, and the covert American intelligence establishment which I have come to refer to as the Financial-Intelligence Complex.

A Brief History of Securitization

Or....

Shadow Bankers Gone Wild

 

 

Preamble

Recently the New York Times published yet another article expressing surprise at the previous existence of securitized financial instruments prior to the last several decades. Securitized financial instruments, or actually securitization, has been around for at least several centuries, and whenever it becomes widely used a Great Depression, or economic meltdown, ensues.

This is the foundation for that bandied about term, “shadow banking.” Without securitization, there would be no such capability. With securitization, the process for creating debt-financed billionaires and multi-millionaires reaches critical mass.

Unfortunately, so to does the dramatic increase in unemployment and poverty.

Those so-called “experts” or “pundits” who continue misleading the populace with extravagant claims as to the recent origins of the securitization process have done a major disservice to society. This brief blog will attempt to rectify this situation.

Goldman Sachs Vice-Chair: People Must “Tolerate the Inequality”

Hat tip to Firedoglake, for picking this up from MSNBC and The London Guardian:

In remarks that will fuel the row around excessive pay, Lord Griffiths, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said banks should not be ashamed of rewarding their staff.

Speaking to an audience at St Paul’s Cathedral in London about morality in the marketplace last night, Griffiths said the British public should “tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity for all”

Continued downstairs. . .

Debunking the Myth of the Financial Markets

Suggestions to solve the financial crises by basically shutting down most of Wall Street are always shouted down by howls of “How are companies going to raise money?” or “How are people going to invest in companies?”

Well, take a good, long look at this graph, which shows the percentage of capital expenditures by U.S. non-financial companies that was raised in U.S. financial markets from 1952 to 2006.

NFC Capex from Financial Markets

Goldman Sachs Buying up Energy Speculation Firm

Earlier this week I wrote a piece on how bailed out banks have been speculating in oil markets.

Today, more evidence that the banks haven't learned that in the end speculation is a zero-sum game has emerged. At the same time that Goldman Sachs has been taking TARP funds, the bank is purchasing foreign firms involved in energy speculation.

Wall Street issues report, concludes: "Oops! Our bad!"

According to the New York Times, a group of Wall Street executives have released a report detailing what went wrong and steps they can take to prevent it from hapening again. OK, quit laughing.

According to the article: 

"Wall Street failed to anticipate how wide-reaching problems with mortgage bonds would spread into seemingly distant corners of the financial markets, the report said. Awash in easy money, banks doled out credit without sufficiently charging for the risk. Wall Street also created complex structures that masked connections between asset classes as well as compensation incentives that pushed traders to take risky steps for short-term gain. The industry’s failings have now translated into pain for the broader economy, the report said."

Ya’ think?

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