Goldman Sachs gives a masters class in virtue signaling

Goldman Sachs announced this week that the investment bank will no longer help take a company public unless said company has at least one “diverse” board member.
Forbes magazine rushed to heap praise on this bold move by saying "It’s commendable that the company is making an effort to drive more diversity" and "Goldman should be applauded for their efforts".

The hypocrisy of this announcement is too extreme to even make a joke about it.
Forget for a moment that this commitment to diversity doesn't apply to Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
It doesn't even apply to Goldman Sachs.

However, the real hypocrisy in this empty gesture is pretending to care about women and minorities (by 'diversifying the ruling elite') while making their fortunes by robbing and pillaging the tens of millions of women and minorities in the working class.

As The Nation writer Robert B. Reich put it “The investment bank (Goldman Sachs) made millions by helping to hide the true extent of the debt, and in the process almost doubled it.“ Additionally, and also relatively recently, the US Department of Justice found Goldman Sachs liable for their role in the 2008 (subprime) financial crisis in the United States, which had a lot of international blowback as well affecting economies globally. According to Business Insider up to 10,000,000 homes were lost between 2006-2014 as a result of the crisis that Goldman Sachs bears partial responsibility for.

Meaning that when it comes to the real life suffering of millions of Americans and Greeks (and beyond) who lost their jobs, homes, or social safety net, Goldman Sachs doesn’t give a damn. Forcing a handful of diversity hires (even if these were demonstrably proven to be a boon for society) would be one drop of generous blessing in a canyon of financial sins.

To say that Goldman Sachs bears partial responsibility for the 2008 crash, the 2011 Euro crises, and the financialized economic recovery that has benefited the wealthy exclusively is an understatement.

Goldman Sachs has been the architect of these financial sins.

The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (Robert S. Kaplan), the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (Neel Kashkari), the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury (Steve Mnuchin), the President of the European Central Bank (Mario Draghi) and the head of the Bank of England (Mark Carney) all have two things in common: they sit atop vast amounts of money and they are all alums of Goldman Sachs. In addition, the immediate past President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, William Dudley, which secretly sluiced over $29 trillion to bail out Wall Street banks during the financial crisis and has now opened its money spigot for trillions of dollars more, worked at Goldman Sachs for more than two decades, rising to the rank of partner and U.S. Chief Economist.

Besides foreclosure king Steve Mnuchin, Steve Bannon had previously worked in Mergers and Acquisitions at Goldman, and Gary Cohn was the former Chief Operating Officer of Goldman.

Goldman Sachs dominated Trump's cabinet, in addition to having outsized influence over financial policy both in the U.S. and Europe for over a decade.
And what is this financial policy leading us to? Nothing good.

On Monday, a member of the New York Fed’s own Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets, Scott Minerd, published a critique which he headlined as follows: “Global Central Banks Fueling a Ponzi Market,” with this scary subhead: “Ultimately, investors will awaken to the rising tide of defaults and downgrades.”

The thrust of the article is that central banks (which include the New York Fed’s Wall Street money spigot that was launched on September 17, 2019) are creating a Ponzi scheme of liquidity that is hiding the true state of risk in both the stock and bond markets.

But we've got diversity among the ruling elite!

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Raggedy Ann's picture

my husband's 401K, but there's nothing I can do about it. It will probably disappear in the next downturn, which is fine by THEM! Shok

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@Raggedy Ann And never came back. Other people told me theirs came back. But the average balance for various age groups given the price of rent, meds, etc. pretty pathetic. Plus, when people redrawn funds it counts as income, and thus will effect social security payments.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@MrWebster
Pleasantry

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5 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@MrWebster really came back since I refused to look at it for years after that crash. I try not to worry about it daily but I still do. For now I am supposedly invested in safe enough things but I confess I really never believe wholeheartedly in what my financial guy says - I cannot help but feel they are paid to tell us all will be good even when they may know better.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

falling, falling

Yesterday, Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of government corruption, using 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives. The most corrupt countries rank lower on the scale while a score of 100 represents the least corrupt. This year the United States ranked below Uruguay on the corruption gauge.
...
As if on cue, two other news items made headlines yesterday involving two century-old banks in the U.S. and reflects just how unevenly the U.S. government metes out “justice” based on political power.

The former Chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo Bank, John Stumpf, was fined $17.5 million and barred from the banking industry by the federal regulator of national banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The enforcement action resulted from sales quotas established within Wells Fargo bank branches in previous years that incentivized employees to open fake customer accounts. Wells Fargo has not been criminally charged in the matter.

The other news item making headlines yesterday was that the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, has received a pay raise to $31.5 million based on his “performance” for the year 2019. The massive compensation comes at a time when the federally-insured bank is under its fourth criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice, all of them occurring while Dimon sat at the helm of the bank and all occurring within the past seven years.

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Hawkfish's picture

From the Guardian:

About a month after revelations about a fundraiser in a wine cave in California, the Buttigieg campaign has increased security to prevent leaks at fundraisers. Donors were asked to check their phones at a fundraising cattle call in Chicago over the weekend where high-ranking Buttigieg campaign officials, including his campaign manager, Mike Schmuhl; senior strategist Michael Halle; the national constituency director, Hasoni Pratts; and the national policy director, Sonal Shah; laid out the state of the campaign and their path through Iowa and New Hampshire.

Yeah, that’s the ticket - try to control the information flow in the internet age. The other day AOC asked why so many politicians campaign like the internet doesn’t exist, but she was talking about the Bidens of the world. Mayo Pete is young enough to know better, but stories like these make it clear he is not in charge: his handlers are.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

For token duty on corporate boards.

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11 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lily O Lady's picture

It’s all distraction while they pick our pockets.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Roy Blakeley's picture

Goldman-Sachs helped develop financial instruments to help a conservative government in Greece cover up Greece's national debt so that they could qualify to join the Euro. TPTB in northern Europe knew this, but they wanted Greece in the Euro to drive down the value of the Euro to give the industrial powers in northern Europe an export advantage. This all collapsed as we know. The people of Greece were screwed. HOWEVER, never fear, Goldman also created an instrument that allowed one to make money betting against the instruments they had created for Greece so investors could profit from the misery of the Greek people. Isn't capitalism wonderful???

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ggersh's picture

@Roy Blakeley all the PIIGS w/financial engineered products
so the Euro(PIIGS) could fly

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Roy Blakeley's picture

@ggersh but it surely would fit the MO of Goldman to have helped the other PIIGS fly. It is worth looking into.

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