Goldman and Sachs Fifth Avenue

I know little about the intricate dealings of the financial world. But it doesn’t take much to know that when an investment counselor recommends that a client buy a security that he believes will fail, to the extent that he bets his own money on its failure, something is wrong.

Nothing yet has been proved in the case against Goldman Sachs. But we already know what we need to about such as the Savings and Loan culprits, Enron and Bernie Madoff. Larceny, in varying degrees is prevalent throughout the world. Individuals like Madoff practiced it to near perfection. Reality-show aspirants do it too, albeit for chump change. Organizations like military contractors do it big time in broad daylight. Rarely a day goes by without news of someone with a hand in the cookie jar, so why should we expect anything different from Wall Street? Greater supervision of the heart of America’s financial world would be beneficial to anyone who isn’t, or doesn’t anticipate being, among the beneficiaries of the heist.

Whatever the outcome of the Goldman case, whether the individual charged is guilty or whether others in the corporation are involved, there is no question that this kind of activity has pervaded high finance and is at the root of the hard times we now face. With financial regulation due to come up in the Senate this week the timing of this case couldn’t be better, a consideration that may have had something to do with the SEC scheduling. If so, I say more power to them!

This breaking news deserves greater attention than the attempted Watergate burglary received, which was little when news of it first broke. The significance of both scandals is on a par although there are differences, one of which is that In Nixon’s time there was no Fat Man or Fox in the henhouse. Had there been it’s likely he would never have had to leave office. With these current right wing “populists” filling the airwaves it will be interesting to hear their arguments on behalf of the likes of Goldman Sachs. The essence, not the language, can probably be distilled to “anything Obama is for is bad.”

It’s time we realize that we have different kinds of enemies. Not all of those with stockpiles of guns and explosives have foreign sounding names. We should also know that others, nowhere near suicidal, unleash much of their brand of destruction daily from limousines while dressed to the nines.