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Today's Top News
Goldman Accused of Rigging 'Robin Hood Tax' Vote
It's really unbelievable. The way that Goldman Sachs keeps sticking its foot in it is simply unbelievable. Lets not review their gross profits and bonuses or their many failed PR schemes to gloss over unseemly profits (a practice we have dubbed "greedwashing"). Let's simply recap this week's news.
On Sunday, the New York Times detailed in a front-page expose how Goldman may have hastened the demise of AIG (and perhaps the global economy), by betting that the housing market would collapse and jacking up its insurance for mortgage securities with AIG to extract more and more money from the firm as the housing market went south.
On Tuesday, we reported the respected German magazine Der Spiegel revealed that Goldman did a billion dollar deal with Greece in 2002, which helped that nation hide its staggering debt for years. Now Greece is tottering on the brink of default, a scenario that could lead to another global meltdown, and Goldman's role is coming under scrutiny. (Unlike the rest of the world, Goldman is probably hedged against a Greek collapse.)
Now the trenchant traders at Goldman have picked a new target. Not satisfied with bringing the global economy to the brink, they now appear to be devoting time and energy to mini, cyber attacks on bank reform campaigners.
Little Lloyd Goes After Robin Hood
On Wednesday, British activists launched a major campaign to push Gordon Brown's government into adopting a "Robin Hood Tax" on financial transactions. "By taking an average of 0.05% from speculative banking transactions, hundreds of billions of pounds would be raised every year," their website claims.
The campaigners unveiled an amazing ad featuring British actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Valkyrie, Pirates of the Caribbean) as a deliciously smarmy banker. Nighy also took to the airwaves on the BBC's biggest morning shows arguing that a tiny transaction tax would be "small change for the bankers, but big change for the world."
The Robin Hood Tax campaign website is loaded with lots of clever downloads and posters and attracted visitors by asking them to vote for or against the transaction tax. On the first day of the campaign launch, the tech-heads running the site noticed that they were being spammed with 4,600 "no" votes in a short period of time. They posted a message on the site saying "naughty naughty" letting the spammer know that he was being "watched from the trees." Within 24 hours they say they traced the spamming to two computers, one allegedly registered to Goldman Sachs.
It's Not Just A Fairy Tale
Goldman has reason to be worried. On Thursday, the Financial Times front page proclaimed that a global deal on a financial transaction tax was in the offing and could be agreed by the G-20 countries at their next meeting in June.
Goldman has a lot to lose if such a tax becomes a reality. Goldman's computers may buy or sell shares as many as 1,000 times a second. It is these high-volume, high-speed trades that would take the biggest hit. Average investors, who hold stock for the long term, would hardly notice. A tax of 0.20 percent, as has been proposed in the U.S. Congress, could raise $100 billion per year. That is real money, money that could be used to put Americans back to work, rebuild our ravaged economy and meet other critical needs.
By today, the Robin Hood Tax "yes" vote had a substantial lead on the "no" camp, with 28,017 votes compared with 3,300. Let's hope the vote keeps on mounting and the campaign spreads around the globe. There is nothing that would put the brakes on the reckless casino-style gambling on Wall Street more than this tiny tax on the likes of Little Lloyd Blankfein.
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26 Comments so far
Show AllTo Hell with the transaction tax. This parasitic corporation doesn't even need to be doing business. Revoke their charter to do business in the U.S. and eliminate them.
Yeah, I know...a dream.
Thank you, Common Dreams!
We should start a campaign like this in the U.S.A too. Easy to understand, a payback but not confiscatory, it could get a lot of support. It needs an organization behind it; I am going to suggest it to MoveOn if I can figure out who to contact there.
His name's Blankfein; but you can call him BIG!
The GS deal in Greece is unbelievable. Yes, I know it was legal, but question whether it was legal. How can it be legal to conspire to defraud?
From the website link to the story:
At some point Greece will have to pay up for its swap transactions, and that will impact its deficit. The bond maturities range between 10 and 15 years. Goldman Sachs charged a hefty commission for the deal and sold the swaps on to a Greek bank in 2005.
end>
The bank makes money and moves on leaving the people to pay for the non-fraudulent fraud after it's discovered. This needs a lot more than a tax.
Great website! I didn't know the term "bankster" came from the Pecora commission. Shows just how long this has been a problem and what kind of government response would be necessary to do anything about it.
When you don't put criminals in prison they'll keep coming back for more.
If the authorities refuse to do anything to rein in these blood sucking vampires, I propose a petty vandalism campaign
should be initiated. By petty vandalism I mean acts that you can't be prosecuted for such as "accidentally" spilling drinks on the floors of their buildings or coughing upon their windows. Social shunning of their higher ranking employees is also a must. Constantly referring to them in public as Goldman Sux also works for me. Tying up their phone and e-mail lines with idiotic messages can be done.
Everyone can do their part.
The G20? Is the U.S. actually going to allow such a sensible and fair tax on transactions? It's hard to believe. The criminal bastards at Sachs deserve jail time, but a little tax is much better than nothing.
Right. Great idea. Now, please hold your breath while you wait for the bank's employees in congress to tax their employers.
these are the same guys that "front-trade" the market also.... stealing millions every single day from the average trader.....
and blankfien with obamas' other self proclaimed "good friend" jamie dimon said WE THE PEOPLE just have to accept bubbles and busting every 5-7 years -
these people are vampires.... sucking the blood from the innocent every sigle day of their lives....living behind gates and walls hiding from the light of WE THE PEOPLE...
raining down misery, death and destruction, murder of union members and other social justice supporters.....
making money on the way up and then on the way down as they bankrupt small business and the working class.....
THESE people are the enemies of democracy.... they now see China as the perfect governing model.....
hence the growth of China as the USA drops into debt and depression......
that's the PLAN!
now that corporations are "persons" let's give these 2 clowns companies the death penalty...
and we need to NATIONALIZE the FEDERAL RESERVE - if WE THE PEOPLE can't control our own money then we will NEVER have a true democracy...
NATIONALIZE THE FED!
"that's the PLAN!
now that corporations are "persons" let's give these 2 clowns companies the death penalty..."
The only "death" penalty these parasites will ever get from this government is a lethal injection of money...our money and lethal to us!
Amazing! Thanks for the link. Although, it didn't actually work for me; I went to http://www.counterpunch.org/ and found it.
“the velociraptors are ripping chunks of flesh out of each other in a fight to the death.” Such wholesome plain speaking is not of course current in the White House, where Obama prefers the term “savvy businessmen,” at least when referring to JP Morgan and Goldman CEOs Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein in a recent interview with Business Week, to anything redolent of fearsome, carnivorous predators." Andrew Cockburn
Nice!
I saw the ad for the new tax on You Tube. Most comments were favorable, but there were a large number of people saying things like, "I'm a trader and I make 60K (pounds, I guess) and you cockroaches aren't getting a penny of it. Get yourselves real jobs."
And all these Tories writing how it would cripple the economy without raising any money, because the bankers would just "pass the expense on to us." And how government would just waste the money anyway.
It's discouraging how many people are so blinded by greed that they can't allow one penny given to people in need, even if helping the needy is in their self-interest. (Although "what government would do with the money" is a concern.)
But the RH tax is all good. It is a tax on speculation! On transactions with no customers, mostly currency swaps and derivatives. There is no down side that I can see. It would reduce capital volatility, as well as putting billions to good use.
Yes, the financial class at all levels was semi-apologetic for awhile. "Of course, we need regulation." Cough, cough. Even Greenspan had admitted to being foolish in thinking banks could regulate themselves. It's pretty obvious at this point that this crisis wouldn't have been this bad with competent regulation and oversight. The free marketeers were fine with levying user fees on other groups, like for national park visitors. I don't see how this is any different. In this case, finance would pay for the necessary government service of regulation. Or they can go back to swinging from the Tarzan vines and get their hands out of the taxpayer's pocket.
GreenDragon, we all need to quit listening to those evil voices in our heads. And on the television, radio and newspapers too.
In representative government, money talks. Only direct democracy talks louder.
Royce
As you are probably aware, Tim Geitner is opposed to this tax because he asserts that it restricts the flow of capital.
In a recent Harper's editorial, the writer claimed that the Superbanks running computerized programs in the newly named "shock trading" style are able to create "virtual collateral". So if Goldman's computer was trading against AIG's computer, it (Goldman's computer) could for a few seconds convince AIG's computer that its cache of 10,000 CDO's are worth more than it was-- say, 32 seconds ago.
Commodity users and producers-- small, medium, and large-- need the derivatives market so that they don't go belly up when some catastrophe affects their cost. This tax might become troublesome to a company like Southwest airlines which is trying to maintain a steady price for its jet fuel. That's a CFO's daily job. None of us would call that speculating. For example,I don't want to buy a ticket to LA on Tuesday only to find that on Wednesday Southwest has to charge an additional $500 to meet the new cost of jet fuel because a New Jersey refinery disrupted the market with a 36 hour shutdown. So, I'm counting on that CFO to do his job as well.
Problem is the derivatives markets (which mark their origin in Japan over 200 years ago) are a necessity for stabilizing prices. The policy problem is distinguishing between a necessary hedge and a table stakes showdown. It's the showdowns that create collapses like we saw in 2008.
The problem I see with this tax as proposed is that it is regressive. It would be better suited as a progressive tax against factors that contribute to market volatility. Those factors would be size and frequency of trade. A hundred small cotton farmers with farms of 200 acres each should not have their hedge contracts traded two or three times per minute by Goldman during a three hour trading session. But Goldman and the others who are manipulating the market with several hundred thousand trades per second need to be restrained with a volitility tax.
a per trade tax would discourage high trade volumes, right? which would reduce high trade volumes, right? which would ameliorate the problem you identify. The 100 small cotton farmers are not in this game anyway. Even if they hold small hedges against failure, the tax each would pay would be meaninglessly small. anyway, farmers can get crop insurance without actual hedge contracts, which is what they ought to be doing if they value economic safety and security. Your southwest airlines and NJ refinery scenarios seem extremely unlikely. 25 years ago, there was no derivatives market to speak of, but neither were there any one-day 200% airline fare mark-ups.
Nobody should fool with derivatives who cannot afford to lose every penny. Except of course the big boys, who get it all back from us in bailouts when they piss it away.
Take home point - you can regulate both hedge bets AND "table stakes showdowns" and there is no real reason not to, except "free market" fundamentalism and financial Toryism - i.e,, our system of rule.
We don't have to get trampled when the big dinosaurs fight, if we make them take it outside.
Manipulation of any market by any business should be illegal. We need to bring back the corporate death penalty! Pull an Enron, an AIG or a Goldman Sachs and the top corporate officers go to jail and the company is dissolved. There needs to be severe consequences for unethical or illegal business practices. Or do you need more than the last several years for proof?
"Tim Geightner is opposed to this tax because he asserts that it restricts the flow of capital."
$$Billions in bankster bonus handouts also restrict the flow of capital!
Goldman Sachs did exactly what the smarties of the Rothschild Dynasty did to gain its fortunes from way back beginning in the 1700's, so it's no surprise that they'd be rigging the system about a little ol' tax that represents a sack of its money.
The Rothschild's owned the first bank in the fledgling United States of America, and our 7th president, old Andy Jackson put forth much energy to get rid of the Rothschild bank, and did. On his tombstone he wanted it written, I KILLED THE BANK.
Rothschild brought England and France to their respective knees with similar money/holdings manipulations, and the War of 1812 was manipulated into being and encouraged by whatever scion of that family to bankrupt the young U.S. The Robber Baron's who got rich here and ruled money-wise played similar games. Jefferson, Madison and Lincoln had nightmares about the rise of Too-Big Businesses and the banking establishment. Very like Kingship.
The banks of the New York consortium of the non-governmental Federal Reserve are in the same business -- manipulating the stock market and the value of currency, and they get to print our money, charge us interest for each dollar "lent," and keep track of the paper tallies.
It's all there in the history books -- the grand or heart-breaking stories depending which side of the fence you're on. Look up the most powerful banks in the world and where they lodge either singly or in groups.
Every financial panic just about everywhere, including in our country, every up-and-down ride on the Wall Street roller coaster has a logic behind it, ... if you are a master manipulator of money. Others who don't know buy into what many believe and write about as gospel: Nobody can outguess how the Wall Street markets are going to go from day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, year-to-year. It's all a mystery ... whimsical, arbitrary ... For someone who is a very sophisticated master manipulator/risk-taker and has gobs of money or someone who has some and very much wants more, and understands how things work, it is not a mystery.
That in itself is not a sin, I suppose, although some would argue that it is. It is a fact of human life that some people have a lust for money and the power that is inherent in having far more holdings and money than anyone else has. And this is their "calling," if you will, and they have a talent for it and expertise. Fiddling with money and acquiring it is their profession, and if nations or people get broken in half in the process, I would guarantee that that is not their concern. But on occasion, all that money power is a way to punish nations and people who oppose them or offend them in some way. A story as old as time.
However, that is why governments, if they are good governments with smart people, put regulations in place to have some modicum of control so that their people do not get stripped, dissed, and become impoverished. In other words, good leaders who practice good government are genuinely concerned with and work for the well-being of their people, all the people.
Fools and not-nice-people think rules and regulations are very bad things because they are interested in making a killing themselves or they are just fools and don't have a grasp of the way things always have been and are.
And obviously, there are lots of fools and not-nice-people throughout history, including throughout the history of our own country, the U.S. of A. Quite a few are running things now, and I'm sure you've noticed the nosedives and damage since deregulating financial houses and corporations of all kinds, even though many people still don't get it and believe that government should keep its hands off the "free-flowing" market and let corporations monitor themselves. Well, with all that freedom, we've been taken for a ride on a fast-flowing river, and many of us have already drowned.
If you haven't read it, dig up Matt Tabbi's article that was in Rolling Stone several months ago: "The Great American Bubble Machine," and how well Goldman-Sachs has done under the very talented Lloyd Blankfein. The Housing Bubble was a stroke of genius if you are on the mega-$dollar$-acquiring side. If not, it is very likely you are homeless, about to be, or everyone in the family is working extra jobs to keep up with mortgage payments, including your 5-year old who sells lemonade on a hot day.
And all the money-making on contracts and military hardware is associated with several Skull & Bones alumni and very familiar family names and political names.
No shame here ... just a sociopathic indifference to individual people's sufferings. And more and more that truly sounds like both a current and past president and many in their administrations.
It certainly is disheartening that the U.S. is the Big Winner in the poll of which of the Western nations, at least, is the most "religious." So as your fortunes tumble, saying "God Help Us" is obviously futile with all that religion practiced here by our Right-wing Religionist friends, especially, because many folks have not had their prayers answered and they are stone broke, jobless and heading for a shelter with their families.
BUT HERE COMES ROBIN HOOD TO SAVE THE DAY! At least part of the day. And with Goldman-Sachs foiled in its trying to give Robin Hood a spear in the butt, we need the rest of his Merry Men too as monitors.
Well ... maybe ROBIN HOOD is an answer to a prayer, and maybe Greece will manage to get off the griddle too.
/cm
There are no moneylenders in the House of the Word.
This world's gambling industries are going to be dead in the water, which is right where they belong.
"Within 24 hours they say they traced the spamming to two computers, one allegedly registered to Goldman Sachs."
The bad news is that Goldman computers are spamming. The good news is that they haven't produced thousands of PC bots using a Trojan to cover their tracks, maybe?
Still wonder who the wizard really is behind the controls at Goldman.
When do we get to see the Financial Times man of the year slowly twisting in the winds of change?
But it's the American way. Dog eat dog, winner takes all, right?
Full spectrum greed.
Good way to raise money for the next bank bailouts and more wars. Robin Hood was an outlaw, fighting the rulers as much as the rich. For supporters of totalitarian statist government to name any increase in taxes as a Robin Hood tax is perverse and appalling regardless of the line of BS they use for their power grab. Yet another irony in today's politics.