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La Jornada, Mexico

Goldman Sachs: Corrupters and Looters of Mexico and the World

 

“They make the criminals who ran the Banking Fund for the Protection of Savings or the disastrous operators of Mexicana Airlines look like clever chicken thieves … They offer to take possession of the nation’s wealth now that, thanks to the Commodity Futures Modernization Act - a law signed by Bill Clinton in 2000 -‘clients’ and entire nations can be fleeced.”

 

By John Saxe-Fernández

 

Translated By Diego Andres Narvaez Romero

 

March 23, 2012

 

Mexico – La Jornada – Original Article (Spanish)

Greg Smith: the former head of Goldman Sachs' U.S. equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, wrote a bombshell of a resignation letter published in The New York Times last week. His resignation serves as perhaps the greatest indictment yet of one of the world's leading financial institutions.

 

BBC NEWS VIDEO: Those 'Quit My Job Goldman Sachs Blues,' Mar. 15, 00:02:16RealVideo

“Today is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost twelve years at the firm … I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. … To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined … I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.”

 

The resignation of Greg Smith, former head of Goldman Sachs' U.S. equity derivatives business and the person most responsible for the largest and most important portfolio of derivatives in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, was published by The New York Times on March 14. Here we have the naked truth, the debauched usury, the deceit and the impunity that given the magnitude of the investment firm's affairs, affect the future, employment and lives of millions of people in and out of the United States. This is easily demonstrated by the symbiosis and complicity of the imperial presidencies of Bush and Obama, the Congress and the courts with this modus operandi.

 

The prevailing context of corrosive greed and usury at institutional icons of high finance, banks and investment firms like CitiGroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, etc., was only encouraged by the provision of between $13 and $14 trillion in unconscionable “bailouts” and subsidies in 2008.

 

These are corrupt business enterprises that include money-laundering operations that make the criminals who ran the Banking Fund for the Protection of Savings or the disastrous operators of Mexicana Airlines look like clever chicken thieves, with the Business Coordinating Council the big winner: launching trading of state-owned Pemex and CFE [Mexican Petroleum and the Federal Electricity Commission] stock on the floor of the Mexico Stock Exchange, where the sharks at Goldman Sachs gamble and operate, was part of an electoral payoff to backers of [presidential candidates] Peña Nieto of the PRI and Vázquez Mota of the ruling PAN. They have called for a vote on stripping the people of their patrimony - increasingly valuable with the onset of “peak oil,” which makes the global energy equation favorable to public control of vital resources. They offer to take possession of the nation’s wealth, now that, thanks to the Commodity Futures Modernization Act - a law signed by Bill Clinton in 2000 - “clients” and entire nations can be fleeced. According to economist Chris Hedges, the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index is the most heavily traded in the world [see video below]. Thanks to Clinton, the company speculates with hungry populations, “hoarding rice, wheat, corn, sugar, and livestock, jacking up commodity prices around the world, so that poor families can no longer afford basic staples – and many literally starve.” That is to say nothing of minerals, metals and fossil fuels.

 

 

SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia: Putin is Better than Goldman Sachs
Le Quotidien d’Oran, Algeria: Goldman Sachs and 'Human Sacrifice' to the Money God
Liberation, France: Goldman Sachs: 'Both Leech and Vampire'
Libération, France: French Banks Shouldn't Act Like Goldman Sachs
Financial Times Deutschland, Germany: Like Capone, Goldman Must Be Taken Out
Financial Times Deutschland, Germany: Will Goldman Sachs Bring Facebook's Downfall?

 

 

Smith’s resignation is revealing: “Over the course of my career I have had the privilege of advising two of the largest hedge funds on the planet, five of the largest asset managers in the United States, and three of the most prominent sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia. My clients have a total asset base of more than a trillion dollars. I have always taken a lot of pride in advising my clients to do what I believe is right for them, even if it means less money for the firm. This view is becoming increasingly unpopular at Goldman Sachs. Another sign that it was time to leave.”

 

Although managers like [former CitiGroup CEO] Robert Rubin and our nearly unmentionable presidents left an indelible mark on the crisis and subsequent looting of Mexico’s national treasury (and oil) during the great speculative ransom scheme that brought the country to its knees after the debacle of December 1994, for Smith, the performance of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein and President Gary D.Cohn represent “the single most serious threat” to the firm’s long-run survival - even if Blankfein proclaimed to The Times of London that Goldman was “doing God’s work.” Perhaps this is what prompted him to promote the idea of “securitizing” hundreds of thousands of toxic mortgages that Goldman, along with other banks and firms, sold to customers while betting against them.

Posted by Worldmeets.US

 

The Goldman Sachs bonanza had nothing to do with the grace of God, but the money received in subsidies and bailouts from the Treasury Department and the FED, which proceeded to print money in a way rarely seen since the times of Tiberius in the year 33, when he decided to rescue the finances of the Roman Empire. The FED serves as the “central bank” so has a monopoly on issuing currency, thus regulating the price of credit, interest rates, and determining the amount of money flowing into the economy.

 

 

Who in Mexico’s Congress approved, without penalty or responsibility, an unusual augmentation of the IMF quota? And remember where the money went: to Lloyd Blankfein just a few months before a collapse that left millions on the street. The senior Goldman Sachs executive received the largest compensation package recorded in its 143-year-history: $18 billion in 2009, $16 billion in 2010 and $10 billion in 2011, according to official figures Hedges released at Zuccotti Park in front of hundreds of “squatters” [watch video above]. He was then arrested by the NYPD in front of Goldman Sachs headquarters.

 

An embarrassed Smith resigned.

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[Posted by Worldmeets.US March 27, 6:06pm]