On Tuesday, April 27, 2010, Senator Carl Levin will convene a hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into Goldman’s shorting of mortgage-backed securities. The panelists, those in the dock, include CEO Lloyd Blankfein, director of structured products group trading Fabrice Tourre, CFO David Vinar, and Chief Risk Officer Craig Broderick. Media reports on Monday, April 26, portray Blankfein as defiant and confident.
Blankfein and his GS colleagues are mistaken if they believe that logic and evidence can carry the day in their attempt to prove the firm did nothing wrong or illegal. Protestations of innocence were of little use during the Spanish Inquisition. Many Spaniards fell victim to the wrack. Their innocence was proven if they did not recant their heresy under torture, but the price of proof was often death.
When looking at Senator Levin, Blankfein would do well to visualize Tomás de Torquemada, who served for fifteen years as Grand Inquisitor of Spain, in the chairman’s seat. Although the Senate cannot inflict physical torture, it can dish out considerable mental torture.
Wednesday's stories will likely include photos of Blankfein squirming in his seat and other unflattering images. Snippets taken from Senators' statements and questions will portray GS as a casino in which the house (GS) wins at the expense of the American people.
1 comment:
As Jimmy Paige once wrote - or was it Robert Plant? - "It makes me wonder". I wonder what defect it is in the psychological makeup of a group of human beings that would have them putting the health and well being of millions of other human beings behind the private profit of a very few. Most of these lawmakers who live in the pockets of the Plutocracy call themselves "Christians". Have they ever made a serious study of the books? You know! - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? - Those guys! How do they justify their actions? How do they sleep at night? We're talkin' major hypocrisy here! That's what makes them so much fun to watch! I always get a certain twisted delight in watching their fake piety. Imagine Wendy O. Williams being cast as Bernadette of Lourdes; or Marilyn Manson as Mahatma Gandhi. It's kind of the same thing.
Sooner or later our right wing friends, within the Congress and without, are going to be forced to admit that the era of anything goes deregulation was a really stupid idea. You can only sit calmly in a burning house, ignoring the flames all about you, for just so long. Sooner or later you'll be forced to flee for your life. After making your escape, if you still refuse to acknowledge that the house is indeed on fire, you're beyond the point where you can make rational decisions on your own. You've entered Librium Country, hombre!
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Tom Degan
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