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Goldman Sachs Tomfoolery - co-written by Dr. X, MD & Juanita Rant, 07-16-09

We have two more weeks before the ObamaCare crap goes into affect. We can send emails to our Congresspersons to tell them how we feel. I will get the link that shows all my eFriends the email addy of the person for their district. We must try. Then we will know for sure, if they do the opposite (which they will), that they truly are tyrants and are not listening and need to be voted OUT. 59% of Americans feel the ObamaCare thing for businesses will cause loss of jobs, or cut salaries. So majority do NOT want it. I'm all about the majority. Those who voted for Obama should pay for this. Hey, I have an idea.....you get taxed by your party and your vote. If they voted for Obama, they get to pay for all the things he wants you to pay for....and those who didn't vote for him, don't. It should be the same for the opposite...when a Republican gets into office and what they want you to pay for. People would start learning real fast about how politicians work, and research their candidates then, wouldn't they? Then they would vote by being informed, rather than being opionated. Did people vote by looking back, or did they vote by looking forward? Unfortunately, many only vote by looking at the past. They forget the past is not who's running for office now. I'm probably not supposed to share this info I got off my paid subscription, but I'm sorry -- this kind of thing needs to be shared with the world! If you want to know which rich millionaire wrote this article below, then contact me. Check out this article on the Goldman Sachs lies. j.

"Update: Goldman Sachs - Needs a Spanking

It really pissed me off.

It was my first fall working for Goldman Sachs in New York City. It was election season, and Robert Rubin, the tall lanky partner with glasses as big as Jackie Onassis', was walking the trading floor. He was head of the Fixed Income Division, but soon to be co-chair of Goldman and eventually Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. Rubin was asking about whether we had turned in our donations to the political party of our choice. He was asking each of us – one by one – right on down the desk.

If we said no, he told us he wanted to see a check signed from us soon. When he walked away, I stupidly asked what he was up to. The guys on the desk laughed at my naïveté and just told me to cough up a thousand for the Democratic Party by tomorrow. I protested: "But I'm Republican." The response: "Not anymore!"

(Just so you know, I no longer belong to the Republican party... I count myself an independent thinker.)

I hadn't thought about that moment in a long time until I read this month's Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi. The article is a true "exposé" of the BS that goes on in the financial world.

The subject is one I'm well versed in: The investment bank Goldman Sachs (by now, known by many as "Government Sachs"). Taibbi shreds the company in an article titled The Great American Bubble Machine, and it's an absolute must-read. You can read it here if you haven’t seen it yet. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/inside_the_great_american_bubble_machine

The article claims Goldman has helped engineer most of the great asset bubbles of the past 80 years... including the tech bubble, the credit bubble, and last year's enormous rise in oil prices. Taibbi also writes Goldman has packed the government with former employees who help it suck billions of dollars from a gullible public. It's one of the most damning articles I've ever read in mainstream media.

I've had several friends read it ask me, "Doc... You worked for Goldman for a long time. What's your take?"

I tell them: It's appalling and... sadly... mostly true.

Goldman has used fear and greed for years to control markets and make millions for its employees and shareholders. And the way it has assembled alumni in positions of power should remind you of mafia corruption.

Worse, current and ex-Goldman employees won't even consider the possibility that, for example, there are conflicts of interest with the Treasury Secretary (an ex-Goldman head) deciding to let one of Goldman Sachs' main competitors – Bear Stearns – go belly up. And it's insulting to think a government employee can give my tax money to a company that was going bankrupt without any oversight or public discussion in Congress... I'm talking about AIG Insurance, which, incidentally, had big deals with Goldman that would have gone sour without the bailout.

The fleecing and manipulation of regular folks like you and me is simply outrageous. And if you think this is the end, you're a fool.

Goldman has even screwed up my personal relationships. A dear friend and I can't even talk about global warming. And yes, Goldman has been a huge player in fueling the "fire." Last year, when oil spiked to $145, she and her friends truly thought we were running out of energy. To them, prices represent supply and demand – they learned that in Econ 101 in college. If prices were high, it was because we were consuming too much carbon products (my God, I breathe out carbon all day long).

So I was castigated for driving my SUV instead of taking a smaller car. And I was assured the world would soon be under water as the ice caps melted. (Al Gore showed us, Right? And he won a Nobel for it.) But none of it made scientific sense. (And for what it's worth, Gore won the Nobel for peace not science.)

I won't get into all the science, but last I heard the sun warms and cools the Earth, in some places by 40 degrees in a day. Even more important, the sun has a cycle of things called sunspots – the more sunspots, the more heat the sun gives off. During the last ice age, the sun produced few sunspots and, voila, we had cooling. Guess what... in the past couple of decades we've had more sunspots, the so-called "Modern Maximum."

But however you want to look at the science, anyone with half an eye for economics had to know last year's price spike in energy and food commodities wasn't due to increasing use of fuel. In fact, the spike in the price of energy was due to Wall Street convincing the world that you needed to own commodities as an asset class.

And don't forget the U.S. government's absurd mandate to use ethanol – another great example of the triumph of politics over science. Global warming fears led to a law requiring we mix corn-based ethanol in with our gasoline – which sounds great until you realize it takes around 1.2 barrels of oil to make 1 barrel of energy equivalent ethanol. But ethanol laws did succeed in forcing corn prices higher. Where does Goldman fit in?

As Taibbi points out: "Goldman [persuaded] pension funds and other large institutional investors to invest in oil futures... the push transformed oil from a physical commodity, rigidly subject to supply and demand, into something to bet on, like a stock."

Passive investments in all commodities grew from $10 billion in 1999 to more than $300 billion in 2008. It was like Las Vegas for the investment banks – only they were playing the house side and using your money to also play at the tables. It was win-win for them but lose-lose for you. Remember, this was your retirement money these people were playing with.

"Government Sachs" is now queuing up to create the next bubble... the "carbon credit" and cap and trade nonsense. The bill (H.R. 2454) is 1,428-pages long. Here's the opening BS, explaining the bill's purpose: "To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy." There's got to be something in there about mom and apple pie.

One thing the bill would create is something called the Carbon Storage Research Corporation... for only $10 billion of our tax money. And that doesn't count the $500 million it would hand this group for administrative expenses. Seriously, I'm not making this stuff up. If you have a suggestion about how to stop this nonsense, please write me so I can share it with our readers.

P.S. I just rented two more American-made cars, a Chrysler and another GM — both were junk. These companies should have been out of business long ago."