Goldman: We Are Not 'Vampire Squid Wrapped Around Humanity's Face'

They're not?! Taibbi hit a sore spot? :evilgrin:


Published on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 by The Guardian/UK
Goldman: We Are Not 'Vampire Squid Wrapped Around Humanity's Face'
Goldman Sachs Denies 'Betting Against Clients'

by Graeme Wearden

Nine months after being labelled "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity", Goldman Sachs has issued a wide-ranging justification of its conduct before, during and after the financial crisis.

In a letter to shareholders issued alongside Goldman's 2009 annual report, the Wall Street bank denied that it "bet against its clients" when it changed its position in the housing market in 2007, shortly before prices began to collapse.

The eight-page letter, signed by chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and president Gary Cohn, also contained a detailed defence of the $12.9bn (£8.5bn) payout which Goldman received from AIG after the failed insurance giant was bailed out by the US government.

The letter appears to be a detailed response to some of the allegations made nine months ago by Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi. His article, which argued that Goldman had repeatedly profited by inflating unsustainable financial bubbles, received widespread coverage. It included the claim that the company was "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money".

One of Taibbi's key charges was that Goldman had helped to fuel the housing boom during the last decade by packaging hundreds of millions of dollars worth of housing loans into complicated financial products such as collateralised debt obligations (CDOs). These CDOs were sold on to other banks and investors such as pension funds, who suffered big losses when the sub-prime housing bubble burst. Goldman, though, actually profited from the fiasco by short-selling the market before the credit crunch struck in summer 2007.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/07-4

"a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money".

I think I've ever read.

The comment must have touched a sore spot.
:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

To go so far as to suggest that they are a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity was maybe a bit harsh.

:rofl:

They are rare and beautiful creatures!

. . . and any other apt descriptions that appear below, too.



TG

:thumbsup:

What would you refuse to do, even if it meant higher profits for shareholders, and bigger bonuses to do something?

And if they did not do one of those things, what would be the repercussions from shareholders?

What is the primary motive?




And if such a motive is claimed to be relgious, what ommisions and interpretations are used to define that?

on this point. I believe that the description "giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity" fits rather well.

I picture them more around the lower back or possibly the groin.

Taibbi has a flare for words at times, and this was one of them. :)

Goldman Sachs has been jamming its blood funnel into money smelling things and screwing us up since before and during the Great Depression, to various degrees. Recently they have called enough attention to their abominable corporate bowels of infamy. A name change might be in order soon.

If the Faustian, Al Pacino Devil where to head any company, it would, without a shadow of a doubt, hands down, be Goldman Sachs.

No amount of expertly crafted company PR can manage perfume the blood-soaked, rotting meat stench that blows like a massive and endless flatulence across the world from this beast's throbbing, mucous spitting, multiple financial anuses!