AIG and Goldman Sachs: "Let Them Eat Cake"

To conservatives, the AIG mess is simply vindication of our positioin that these govenment bailouts are an abomination--vindication not only as against leftists but as against the Republican "establishment" that needs to GO (in a coup--see previoius entry)..


The taxpayers did not just pay 165 million dollars in present AIG bonuses. The taxpayers paid for PREVIOUS bonuses and mistakes of AIG, Goldman Sachs (which Henry Paulson ran into the ground--even though no one realized it--before doing the same for the U.S. Treasury and the country in the process of bailing out the very company he ran into the ground), Citigroup, GM, and all of the rest.


Are the taxpayers paying the PREVIOUS 28 million dollar salary of the CEO of GM? Of course we are. GM did not have the money--just like GM did not have the money to pay the extravagant UAW benefits. Does it make any difference that the taxpayer bailout is RETROACTIVELY paying the previous salaries and bonuses for GM and Goldman Sachs executives? Of course it is not really different than paying current AIG bonuses. Either way, the taxpayers are endorsing financial decisions that should never have been made, and enormous payments of money that should never have been made. It is just as bad, and really worse, to bailout companies for their past mistakes, as it is to see taxpayer money being used for bonuses that were not earned (not earned, because the company should be in bankruptcy where the bonuses would never have been paid). These current bonuses are only 165 million. The bailout of past bonuses, and mistakes, is 173 billion dollars, and counting (for AIG alone). Which is worse: 165 million or 173 billion?


As this blog has repeatedly, and correctly, stated, the bailout of AIG was really a bailout of Goldman Sachs (in one of the great conflicts of interest in fiancial history, as Henry Paulson used taxpayer money to pay HIS previous bonuses--as CEO of Goldman Sachs before he became Tresury Secretary in 2006). Goldman Sachs, under Paulson and others, was the primary agent that CREATED this house of cards by gettting enormous fees for "advising" on mergers and big financial transactions. I would bet that Goldman Sachs was a prmie player in setting up the entire derivatives market. It was certainly a prime player in creating the system that failed--sending its CEO (Henry Paulson) to Washington with the apparent mission to save Goldman Sachs from his own mistakes (while selling the country down the river). I do not call Henry Paulson "the worst failure in the history of world finance" for lack of reason.


That is the more important news that came out over the weekend, which is being obscured by the flap over the ridiculous 165 million in bonuses (what do you, OBAMA, expect when you give a BLANK CHECK?). It came out over the weekend that AIG merely forwarded 93 billion dollars of the taxpayer bailout money to Goldman Sachs, and a sset of Eurpopean banks. Goldman Sachs alone received 13 billion dollars to pay off "obligations" of AIG to Goldman Sachs. As this blog has told you previously, Paulson (and Bernanke) panicked in October becasue of Goldman Sachs, which Gieitner (present Treasury Secretary) let be the only private company to sit in on the New York Fed meeting to discuss what to do with AIG. It is not too strong to say that Goldman Sachs has been conduction the economic policy of this country, primarily for the benefit of Goldman Sachs (prmiarily responsible for the Wall Street part of getting us into this mess)--at least since October. yes, it is YOU, the taxpayers, who have paid (retroactively) the bonuses that HENRY PAULSON received at Goldman Sachs, and all of the other enormous compensatioins and bonuses wrongfully received (since they were creating a totally false empire).


More than any other firm out there, Goldman Sachs should have been allowed to go into bankruptcy. It was a bankrupt company, if AIG had been rightly alloed to go under. It should have been a bankrupt company. Its "crimes" were fully as bad, or worse, than that of AIG. In fact, it is really Goldman Sachs which has gotten the taxpayers to the point of paying this 165 million in current bonuses (hardly a blip on the 173 billion dollar mistake used to retroactively pay the previous bonuses of Hentry Paulson, et. al.).


Nope. The 165 million is the least of this scandal. It is time for a public revolt. See the previous entry. And if you think the revolt should be solely against the leftist Democrats who want this fascist "partnership" between Big Government and Big Business, you are mistaken. The Republican establishment needs to be swept aside, and into the dustbin of history, just as much as the leftist Democrats. If the public simply continues to replace one establishment with the other, whil both proceed with their corrupts, central planning, Big Government ways, nothing will be gained. Let the revolt begin!!!!!!!!!!!