"They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients.
Goldman Sachs, as the Levin report makes clear, remains an ascendant company precisely because it used its canny perception of an upcoming disaster (one which it helped create, incidentally) as an opportunity to enrich itself, not only at the expense of clients but ultimately, through the bailouts and the collateral damage of the wrecked economy, at the expense of society. The bank seemed to count on the unwillingness or inability of federal regulators to stop them — and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime — a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history.
America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial.
Note EU-Digest:: Unfortunately the US Federal Reserve and the political establishment there have not been very effective to curb what the US Senate report by Senator Carl Levin shows to be criminal activities by Goldman Sachs. They have shown not to have the political will to determine that Goldman Sachs has not been acting in accordance with its banking license and worst of all it seems that effective banking regulations are still not in the making or forthcoming.
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For more than a year now many European financial experts have been urging their Governments, the EU Commission, and the EU parliament that Goldman Sachs needs to be blacklisted from working with eurozone governments as soon as possible; as was the case with Salomon Brothers 20 years ago. They also say that given the information acquired from the Greek economic disaster, Goldman Sachs was shown to have been advising the Greek Government on how to put deceptive levels of value on their reserves to induce investors into buying Government bonds at inflated prices. They recommend that Goldman Sachs should be banned from eurozone government securities markets altogether. Unfortunately, also in Europe, apart from Germany, there still has not been any major response against Goldman Sachs excessive influence on the eurozone's economic environment. It is believed that one of the reason for this reluctance to act has come from Great Britain's London financial community who have put up roadblocks against effective European unified action against Goldman Sachs.
It seems quite clear that if no action is taken by EU governments against international financial corganizations like Goldman Sachs and no real effective regulations are put into effect covering every aspect of the financial community, the next economic crises will make the past one look like child's play. Click here to watch the report on the above issue by Senator Carl Levin on C-SPAN
For more also see: The People vs. Goldman Sachs | Rolling Stone Politics
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