$164.30
-2.36 (-1.42%)
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS)
CAPS Rating:
Global investment bank, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals.
RSS Headlines
Fool UK
Recs
Any good red-blooded American should be giving GS a red-thumb merely out of spite!I don't think there's anyone/anything strong enough to break the stranglehold that Wall Street has over Washington. Here are 10 reasons (scenes) why Wall Street has absolute power over our democracy. Excerpts from an article I linked to in my blog:
Jack Bauer can't stop 'The Goldman Conspiracy'
...Two mind-numbing fast-paced dramas. Two parallel worlds. One real, one fiction, both deadly...
The other drama in play: "Hank the Hammer" Paulson, iconic Wall Street hero, a Trojan Horse placed inside Washington by Goldman Sachs as Treasury Secretary in control of America's $15 trillion economy. Goldman, a modern dynasty with vast financial powers...
Both dramas play high-stakes games with financial WMDs that have lethal consequences. Jack compresses thrills, kills and chills into 24 hours. Hank, Goldman and their army of Wall Street mercenaries move with equally blinding speed, heart-pounding action.
Drama? You bet. Six short months ago Hank led an assault on Congress...with just a two-and-a-half page memo in hand. Like a crack special-ops warrior, he took down the enemy, demanding $750 billion, absolute control, total secrecy, no accountability and emergency powers to act immediately ... warning that inaction was not an option, that collapse of America's banking system was imminent, would bring down the global monetary system, pushing world's economies into a "Great Depression II." Congress surrendered. Here's the whole plot:
Scene 1. American government is now run by the 'Goldman Conspiracy'
Oh, you really think just I'm plotting a television series? Or just paranoid, exaggerating this power grab? You better read "The Usual Suspects," Matthew Malone's brilliant article in Portfolio magazine: He "exposed" the "Goldman Sachs 'conspiracy' to take over the U.S. financial system." Read it in this context: America's financial sector has exploded from 19% of corporate profits in 1986 to 41% today, becoming a magnet for every wannabe billionaire. They know why Wall Street must control Washington. Malone focuses on the incestuous "conspiracy" of Goldman alumni in Treasury, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Citigroup, Washington lobbyists and politicians.
Scene 2. Huge conflicts motivating Wall Street's 'Trojan Horse'
And just in case you think any emphasis on The Hammer's conflict of interest was invented purely to increase drama, please remember that he worked at Goldman for three decades after serving under Nixon. He got $38 million his last year as CEO in 2006 before becoming Treasury Secretary. Then during the market meltdown six months ago the $700 million personal fortune he built at Goldman was threatened by Goldman's huge $20 billion derivatives exposure at AIG: Suddenly his responsibilities at Treasury merged with a strong self-interest in protecting his personal fortune. AIG was "saved."
Scene 3. Wall Street's 'quiet coup' also runs world's banking system
There's another equally disturbing expose in "The Quiet Coup," Simon Johnson's great article in Atlantic magazine. A former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, Johnson also warns that America's "financial industry has effectively captured our government" and is "blocking essential reform." Worse, he says that unless we break Wall Street's stranglehold (unlikely in the new Washington) we will be unable "to prevent a true depression," warning that "we're running out of time," echoing many of our predictions of the "Great Depression II" coming soon...
Scene 4. Wall Street used the meltdown to take over America's government
Matt Taibbi, author of "The Great Derangement," captured this drama in a Rolling Stone piece, "The Big Takeover, how Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution." A must-read: "As complex as all the finances are, the politics aren't hard to follow. By creating a crisis that can only be solved by those fluent in a language too complex for ordinary people to understand, the Wall Street crowd has turned the vast majority of Americans into non-participants in their own political future. ... in the age of CDS and CBO, most of us are financial illiterates." Wall Street "used the crisis to effect a historic, revolutionary change in our political system -- transforming a democracy into a two-tiered state, one with plugged-in financial bureaucrats above and clueless customers below."
Scene 5. How Obama is keeping alive Bush's 'disaster capitalism'
Back in 2007 at the start of the meltdown, Hank was misleading us in Fortune: "This is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime." In the real world, Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine: Rise of Disaster Capitalism," was warning us that "during boom times it's profitable to preach laissez faire, because an absentee government allows speculative bubbles." But "when those bubbles burst, the ideology becomes a hindrance and goes dormant while big government rides to the rescue." Then, free-market "ideology will come roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis." TARP paybacks: Obama has a new "disaster capitalism."
Scene 6. Wall Street's CEOs rule like dictators in a banana republic
Seriously, here's how bad Taibbi sees it: "Paulson and his cronies turned the federal government into one gigantic half-opaque holding company, one whose balance sheet includes the world's most appallingly large and risky hedge fund, a controlling interest in a dying insurance giant, huge investments in a group of teetering megabanks, and shares here and there in various auto-finance companies, student loans, and other failing business." And let's include $5.5 trillion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Wall Street's greed and stupidity resembles the self-destructive reigns of banana republic dictators.
Scene 7. Wall Street makes an un-American bet on 'disaster capitalism'
...The "Goldman Conspiracy" is still probably a good short-term buy ... if you're interested in betting on America's new "democracy of capitalists, by capitalists, and for capitalists," with "The Conspiracy" leading the joint chiefs of this new mercenary army ... and it only took six short months for their "Quiet Coup!"
Scene 8. Banks recycle TARP money, pump earnings, cheat America
Here's how it worked: The Hammer conned a clueless Congress, then shelled out $350 billion of our taxpayer money (Helicopter Ben Bernanke helped by upping the ante with a couple trillion side-bet), buying toxic debt to save his ol' Wall Street buddies. They stopped lending and used the dough to doctor their balance sheets. So no surprise that Goldman, Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase are now reporting "blockbuster" first-quarter earnings, says the New York Times, while just months ago "many of the nation's biggest banks were on life support." Get it? They screwed taxpayers and borrowers so they can repay TARP with (you guessed it) our recycled TARP money. Now it's back to business-as-usual, with no restrictions on CEO pay and bonuses ... no thank-yous ... no admissions of guilt ... while some even arrogantly deny that they ever needed TARP money.
Scene 9. Wall Street's already set the stage for new disaster
Right after the election in November, at the peak of the banking crisis...we detailed 30 reasons for the "Great Depression II" likely coming around 2011. We quoted John Whitehead, former Goldman Sachs chairman, former chairman of the New York Fed, former Reagan deputy secretary of state. He warned America's problems will take years, burn trillions, result in massive deficits: "This is a road to disaster," he said. "I've always been a positive person and optimistic, but I don't see a solution here." He did see a depression at the end of that road, one you can call the "Great Depression II."
Scene 10. Obama turned 'The Goldman Conspiracy' into a superpower
...Hope that Jack, Barack or some other new hero will emerge, take power back from Wall Street and return it to the people. Unfortunately that won't happen, folks... Hank, Goldman and Wall Street's mercenaries are winning the war. Read and weep Portfolio's chilling finale: "Obama's victory and Geithner's appointment are the completion of Goldman's meticulously crafted plan to become a superpower. The firm now has the clout to impose its will on the financial markets, and the world."
GOP or Dems? Conservatives or liberals? It doesn't matter. We'll all controlled by "The Conspiracy."
Well presented post and you deserve to be the top pitch!
The only problem I can find is spite does not pay my bills...
Keep up the the strong DD as one Joe Average may realize Goldman Averaged down their retirement.
agree with alberta911 that going short on a company (especially a crooked company) out of spite, when they own washington, does not seem like a wise move. are you shorting cause you really believe it will go down? and how is that congruent with your claim that they rule the world? please xplain.
I fail to see how this a conspiracy. Business men have always been money hungry and ready to manipulate government.
Results rule. You don't have to like GS tactics to like their results. And it's NEVER a good idea to invest based on emotion, so shorting GS just because they're evil can't be smart. I own GS. I own big tobacco. I don't like it. I do like money.
I think it may take a while for GS' troubles to come home to roost. Right now Obama doesn't want to do further damage to the financial sector, which may not be the wisest course, but it seems as if he's trying to ride this out for the time being. Even if we're whistling past the graveyard, I'm not sure it's a good bet to short GS right now. Depending on what happens, maybe in a year or two. Maybe by this summer, but I doubt it. It might feel good, but is it really going to work out as an investment strategy?
Yeah, i respect the call and all but the reasoning would make it a buy if i didnt see the red thumb.
Im holding my position, cost of less than 100. Intrinsic is real hard to judge but cash flow is apparently in the balance.
You nailed it, DYG. There is every incentive for any private actors defrauded by goldman to sue. It is made a convenient case of "the whole system is rigged' and even then some private actor can take the case to court. frankly, i find the GS bashing sour grapes. Anyway, other banks literally own the Federal Reserve, so I don't get the monomania on GS. Actually, i do get it.
Disclosure: long GS at $92, but hardly enough to make me care one way or the other. I get the feeling many anti-GS were long, went short after the big money was made, and are bitter the market went back up. And think GS caused it all.
Goldman Sachs is the one running the country. They are also part of the IMF aka our FED mafia gangsters. IMHO See article in Rolling Stones. It was very good and explains a lot. Also why in less than 2 years we will be in a depression.
We're not a democracy... we're a republic. Anyway, since it's impossible to keep companies from wielding government power the only logical solution is to decrease government power. It's so simple even a caveman could have though of that one.
Oh... yeah capitalism is just one big conspiracy... Right. Capitalism American style is about thinking big, takings risk and prevailing. Nobody does it better than GS. They are the toughest dog on the street. That is what America was in the past; tough, determined, relentless, driving. That is how this country ascended to wealth. It created it out of nothing. Look at our cars from the 50s they are the envy of the world. Now look at the garbage they make today. This was the gang of dreamers that got us to the moon. Now we have a welfare nation with everyone with their hand out, everyone risk adverse and seeking the gov to make it safe for everyone from cradle to grave no matter how useless the individual. We bow to the loser on welfare and curse the genius. We steal from the rich, imaginative, and productive and lavish it on the unwed mothers and the next generation of weaklings and welfare recipients. Thank God in a sea of losers there is GS and its unabashed locomotion dedicated to the ascension to wealth. It keeps the flames of Capitalism alive.
Obama is destroying the fabric of this nation. It is incumbent on companies in the Capital formation markets to deploy capital and build business where the future exists. I have told my lazy nephew, a harvard grad, to take his fancy butt to Asia and seek his fame and fortune. Will he do it? Of course not. He is too comfortable and lacks the hunger and drive of the WWII generation. But GS is there. GS is always at the epicenter of the engine of capitalism stoking the flames and building tomorrow. You don't like Capitalism because it is direct, logical and pure. It doesn't ask for your sympathy. Capitalism is not sympathetic, it is efficient.
I realize that many who live in America don't have the stomach to compete. They don't have the spine to achieve. They would rather connive to find the easy way to do nothing, to have someone else feed them, cloth them, and think for them. But while Americans are imploding in their own self-doubts and loss of ego, Asia has 4 billion highly skilled hands ready to assume the work of every+ manufacturing job in the US. They don't have the waste of unions, and they are building huge infrastructure. While the US is fumbling with wind mills, the Chinese are building 34 new nuclear plants with a future plan to build 300 more. Each industry that migrates from the US become a profitable manufacturer. Briggs & Stratton was getting killed by its unions in the US. They contacted Goldman and GS helped them get a 215,000 sq ft factory in China. B&S is now thriving, making money. And each year, China builds more buildings to house more businesses. If you like big, you would like China. The buildings are big. The workforce is superb. And each year they have more to offer to the big multi-nationals.
4 Billion Asian hands await. Meanwhile obama is pushing unions, socialized medicine, cap and trade, promising to raise tax on business, increasing regulation, increasing investment tax, and our deficit grows and our country is moving to a future of hyper stagflation. The clarity of capitalism means money, resources, and know-how will be moving to Asia. GS was there first. And each year Asia gets better, more attractive. In one neighbor in China where I stayed, the houses looked identical to any nice American suburb. The only difference is that in China you don't have some thug trying to break into your home; there was no need to lock your door. The Chinese are way further along than dopes in this country think. GS is shaping Asia's future and obama is shaping yours. Enjoy your conspiracy theories. My view is one dope in the white house can cause a lot of damage; is that a conspiracy?
hahaha, JGus you really lit up the board with that rant. I didn't read past "spite", "Bauer" and "conspiracy"- that was enough for me.
Here's the deal. In this country you get ahead by making money, not by running around crying because someone does not play by rules you hold dear. Figure out who makes money well and then either buy them or invest like they do. Or you can keep you job on the assembly line, and go home and have a six pack while watching 24 and bi***ing about why you can't get ahead. It's up to you.
BTW, since it is all a conspiracy, which side do you come down on regarding healthcare? You're probably one of the folks holding up a pathetic Lynden LaRouche Obama Nazi poster. Please get a dose of reality sometime soon.
No wonder your rating is so shty. You are the true fool.
I resent that cause my rating sucks too..lol..I learned the hard way that just because something is a good investment doesnt equal good caps points. Also I understand the moral argument unfortunately I still wont short the company and if I mange to go to cornell they are on my short list of future employers.
I have always thought that one should not mix politics and investment strategy. But I have to agree that the right thing for the country would be to reign in the Goldman Sachs of the world. Will it happen? I am beginning to think it is possible. People are getting irritated in the hinterlands. Good news on Wall Street is not translating to countryside in general. I hope Obama will realize his mistake and clean house of the NY mafia. I think it is possible in the next18 months.