We were being robbed and our democracy was taken over in a quiet coup. This isn't the muttering of some ultra-left radicals somewhere. Goldman Sachs and Wall Street are being called out by some of their own. Former investment banker with Morgan Stanley, Paul B. Farrell has written a bitingly harsh condemnation of Wall Street, and particularly Goldman Sachs. The article can be found on MarketWatch, not exactly Mother Jones. More after the fold.
Farrell's tone is quite bitter:
Here's the whole plot:
Scene 1. American government is now run by the 'Goldman Conspiracy'
Oh, you really think just I'm plotting a television series? Or just paranoid, exaggerating this power grab? You better read "The Usual Suspects," Matthew Malone's brilliant article in Portfolio magazine: He "exposed" the "Goldman Sachs 'conspiracy' to take over the U.S. financial system." Read it in this context: America's financial sector has exploded from 19% of corporate profits in 1986 to 41% today, becoming a magnet for every wannabe billionaire. They know why Wall Street must control Washington.
Farrell accuses Wall Street of engineering the mess and Hank Paulson of having huge conflict of interest in all that he did. Farrell also cites an article for Atlantic by the former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, Simon Johnson, called, "The Quiet Coup" in which Johnson warns that our government has been essentially "captured" by Wall Street and further, that Wall Street is using its massive financial power to block reform.
Farrell is not impressed with Washington's awkward attempts to deal with the crisis:
GOP or Dems? Conservatives or liberals? It doesn't matter. We'll all controlled by "The Conspiracy." So why not surrender, let them have the power? The truth is, through their lobbyists and surrogates in Washington, they already rule America. Surrender is a mere formality.
Seen from an historical perspective, we were once before ruled by the financial tycoons during the era of the "Robber Barons". Progressives defeated them then and we likely will defeat them now. But they are also likely to do even more damage to our economy as we pry the country out of their fingers. It may take some time. Our first priority must be, of course to restore the rule of law. Then we must take our country back from those unelected emperors who would use the vast wealth that they control to rule us absolutely.