{"id":10254,"date":"2009-11-09T19:18:07","date_gmt":"2009-11-10T02:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=10254"},"modified":"2009-11-09T19:18:07","modified_gmt":"2009-11-10T02:18:07","slug":"goldman-sachs-and-gods-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10254\/goldman-sachs-and-gods-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Goldman Sachs and God&#8217;s Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I guess I haven&#8217;t reached that point in my life yet when I&#8217;m so jaded (or is it cynical) that nothing will surprise me.\u00a0 I say this after reading an <a title=\"Doing God's Work\" href=\"http:\/\/www.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/news\/world\/us_and_americas\/article6907681.ece\" target=\"_blank\">interesting little article in the London <em>TimesOnline<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 They had the chance to interview Lloyd Blankfein, the Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.\u00a0 It seems he&#8217;s convinced &#8211; or at least he&#8217;s convinced he can convince us &#8211; that Goldman serves &#8220;a social purpose.&#8221;\u00a0 As a matter of fact, Mr. Blankfein is so enamored with the self-importance of Goldman that he proudly proclaims he&#8217;s &#8220;Doing God&#8217;s Work.&#8221;\u00a0 Wow&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Just to refresh our memory:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Goldman received $10 Billion in Tarp Money<\/li>\n<li>Goldman received $12.9 Billion of government money through AIG<\/li>\n<li>Goldman received $20.9 Billion in FDIC debt guarantees<\/li>\n<li>Goldman, restructured as a &#8220;bank holding company&#8221; borrows at the Fed Window (at basically no cost)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Oh, and one more thing: Goldman will be paying $21.9 Billion in bonuses for 2009.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t begrudge them bonuses, after all: they&#8217;ve had a helluva year.\u00a0 Although some of that might be due to their oligarchical position within the federal government.\u00a0 It would be nice &#8211; every once in a while &#8211; if Goldman would send a little thank you nod our way; maybe a quick wave or even a wink.\u00a0 I guess I&#8217;m saying that when you&#8217;re screwing me this bad, a little dinner wouldn&#8217;t hurt.<\/p>\n<p>John Lennon stirred up quite a spot of bother when he said: &#8220;<a title=\"John Lennon quote\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/John_Lennon\" target=\"_blank\">We&#8217;re more popular than Jesus now<\/a>.&#8221;\u00a0 Have to admit though, that seems like such a trifle compared to the CEO of Goldman Sachs.\u00a0 I mean, who cares if you&#8217;re more <em>popular<\/em> than Jesus?\u00a0 Mr. Blankfein is angling to BE Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I guess I haven&#8217;t reached that point in my life yet when I&#8217;m so jaded (or is it cynical) that nothing will surprise me.\u00a0 I say this after reading an interesting little article in the London TimesOnline.\u00a0 They had the chance to interview Lloyd Blankfein, the Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.\u00a0 It seems he&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[251,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-big-mother","7":"category-group-therapy","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1341,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1341\/more-strip-monopoly-icahn-sells-nevada-casinos\/","url_meta":{"origin":10254,"position":0},"title":"More Strip Monopoly: Icahn sells Nevada casinos","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"More on the theme of Strip Monopoly: Billionaire Carl Icahn is selling all of his Nevada casino holdings to Goldman Sachs' Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds for $1.3 billion. This is interesting on a number of grounds, taken more or less least to greatest. Third, Icahn is going to net\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Investment&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10192,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10192\/with-help-like-this\/","url_meta":{"origin":10254,"position":1},"title":"With help like this&#8230;","author":"Al Lorenz","date":"October 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Worthington is right.\u00a0 Do you want to know how right he is?\u00a0 According to Goldman Sachs, who ought to know about government intervention, the feds interventions into the housing have pushed home prices 5% higher on a national average than they would have been otherwise, Goldman Sachs estimates in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Dirty Laundry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Dirty Laundry","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dirty-laundry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6231,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6231\/the-frog-and-scorpion-millenium-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":10254,"position":2},"title":"The Frog and Scorpion (Millenium Edition)","author":"Brian Brady","date":"December 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Rod Blagojevich tried to sell the Illinois Senate seat, recently vacated by President-Elect Obama.\u00a0 Blago is to public service what Bernard Madoff is to investment advisory; a modern day pirate, raping and plundering.\u00a0 Their sociopathic behavior is exacerbated by their belief that position implies entitlement.\u00a0 If you're a believer, there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Real Estate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10486,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10486\/a-disaster-for-democrats-yeah-but-what-about-the-rest\/","url_meta":{"origin":10254,"position":3},"title":"A Disaster for Democrats?   Yeah, but what about the rest?","author":"Tom Vanderwell","date":"December 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This is just ugly.....Let me attempt to explain.\u00a0\u00a0 Goldman Sachs came out with their economic forecast.\u00a0\u00a0 Here's a brief summary of it:Mediocre growth until late 2011.Unemployment peaking at 10 3\/4 in the middle of 2011.Extremely low inflation through 2011Low interest rates through 2011 (at least the ones the Fed controls.)So,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Group Therapy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4513,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4513\/like-drunks-in-a-singles-bar-right-before-closing-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":10254,"position":4},"title":"Like Drunks In A Singles Bar, Right Before Closing Time&#8230;","author":"Brian Brady","date":"September 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"banks and securities firms look to \"hook-up\" with each other: Morgan Stanley slumped more than 46 percent in early trading as investors fretted about its ability to quickly find a buyer or cash infusion from a foreign investor. Rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. skidded 25 percent. Morgan Stanley shares rallied\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Real Estate&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10206,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10206\/cit-fed-bk\/","url_meta":{"origin":10254,"position":5},"title":"CIT + FED = BK","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A few months back, as part of a Tin Foil Hat Production, I mentioned CIT's desperate need for funds and the Fed's decision not to bail them out. Why is this noteworthy? After all, I don't believe the Fed should bail anybody out.\u00a0 I cheer wildly to see Ford record\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Big Mother&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10254"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10259,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10254\/revisions\/10259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}