(Kleptocratic US of Goldman Sachs - ) Hank Paulson Fleeced the American Taxpayers in Order to Save Them
Riaz K Tayob
audacity of shamelessness...]
Sheldon Filger Writer, founder of GlobalEconomicCrisis.com Posted: July
16, 2009 06:14 PM
Hank Paulson Fleeced the American Taxpayers in Order to Save Them
Hank Paulson is deeply empathetic about the American people's plight;
absorbing intergenerational levels of debt to cover the costs of
unbridled greed and recklessness on the part of Wall Street. Thus, while
being raked over the coals at a congressional hearing for his role in
the near destruction of the global financial system last fall, and the
$700 billion TARP Wall Street bailout package he was able to pull
through a terrified Congress as the price of avoiding financial
Armageddon, the former Treasury Secretary had this to say about the
plight of the American people: "The tragedy is they didn't create the
problem. But they would be the ones that would pay the greatest penalty
if there was a collapse."
Paulson's statement, while superficially sympathetic to the injustice of
the collective innocent paying for the sins of the few, is in substance
the manifestation of a disdain for the broad masses that borders on
contempt. In effect, he is reiterating a posture that has been
consistently maintained by the "masters of the universe" since the onset
of the global financial and economic crisis; privatize the profits
(especially after radical deregulation) but socialize all losses.
Since last fall, trillions of dollars have been added to the U.S.
national debt through TARP, fiscal stimulus packages made necessary by
the financial collapse, and other forms of direct and indirect
government and Federal Reserve aid to the financial sector. All in the
name, we are told, of the American people who, it is claimed, would be
subjected to even greater debt and future taxation if Wall Street is not
bailed out. The old concept of "moral hazard," still in force when
Paulson allowed Lehman Brothers, a competitor of his former stomping
ground Goldman Sachs to die, was swiftly ejected when AIG faced bankruptcy.
Now Goldman Sachs is declaring a record quarterly profit, and arrogantly
boasting of the billions of dollars of bonus payments that will be
dished out to its employees. What the firm that Paulson used to lead as
Chairman won't divulge is how much of its profit was due to $13 billion
it received in payment from the U.S. taxpayer, using AIG as a
pass-through for the payment. Neither will this Wall Street entity make
public the impact of tens of billions of dollars in low-interest,
taxpayer subsidized loans it now has access to, once Hank Paulson and
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke changed the rules, and allowed investment
banks such as Goldman Sachs to magically transform themselves into bank
holding companies.
If Hank Paulson symbolizes the incestuous relationship between Wall
Street and government, his attitude reflects how insignificant the
general public has become in the minds of those calling the shots and
making the critical policy decisions in the wake of the worst economic
crisis to afflict the American people since the Great Depression. But
when those who caused the disaster are spared the ravages of the
unwashed masses who are now being corralled into ever-growing
unemployment lines, and instead are basking in the illumination of near
record bonus payments, their callousness can at least be understood.
The question that Hank Paulson and his ilk may ultimately be compelled
to answer is why should the American people be eternally grateful for
their "noblesse oblige" when it becomes crystal clear to them that they
have been dispossessed of much of their future as the price for bailing
out Wall Street and its architects of our current economic and financial
doom.
Sheldon Filger: Hank Paulson Fleeced the American Taxpayers in Order to
Save Them (17 July 2009)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-filger/hank-paulson-fleeced-the_b_236413.html