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No Arrests Inside Goldman Sachs, Though We Were Arrested Outside
Chris Hedges made this statement in New York City’s Zuccotti Park on Thursday morning during the People’s Hearing on Goldman Sachs, which he chaired with Dr. Cornel West. The activist and Truthdig columnist then joined a march of several hundred protesters to the nearby corporate headquarters of Goldman Sachs, where he was arrested with 16 others.
Christopher Hedges and other Occupy Wall Street protesters get arrested in front of Goldman Sachs headquarters in Battery Park City after they held a mock trial against the company at Zuccoti Park and marched to the building with their guilty verdict. Approximately 15-20 protesters were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. (Craig Warga/New York Daily News )
Goldman Sachs, which received more subsidies and bailout-related funds than any other investment bank because the Federal Reserve permitted it to become a bank holding company under its “emergency situation,” has used billions in taxpayer money to enrich itself and reward its top executives. It handed its senior employees a staggering $18 billion in 2009, $16 billion in 2010 and $10 billion in 2011 in mega-bonuses. This massive transfer of wealth upwards by the Bush and Obama administrations, now estimated at $13 trillion to $14 trillion, went into the pockets of those who carried out fraud and criminal activity rather than the victims who lost their jobs, their savings and often their homes.
Goldman Sachs’ commodities index is the most heavily traded in the world. Goldman Sachs hoards rice, wheat, corn, sugar and livestock and jacks up commodity prices around the globe so that poor families can no longer afford basic staples and literally starve. Goldman Sachs is able to carry out its malfeasance at home and in global markets because it has former officials filtered throughout the government and lavishly funds compliant politicians—including Barack Obama, who received $1 million from employees at Goldman Sachs in 2008 when he ran for president. These politicians, in return, permit Goldman Sachs to ignore security laws that under a functioning judiciary system would see the firm indicted for felony fraud. Or, as in the case of Bill Clinton, these politicians pass laws such as the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act that effectively removed all oversight and outside control over the speculation in commodities, one of the major reasons food prices have soared. In 2008 and again in 2010 prices for crops such as rice, wheat and corn doubled and even tripled, making life precarious for hundreds of millions of people. And it was all done so a few corporate oligarchs, the 1 percent, could make personal fortunes in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. Despite a damning 650-page Senate subcommittee investigation report, no individual at Goldman Sachs has been indicted, although the report accuses Goldman of defrauding its clients.
When the government in the fall 2008 provided the firm with billions of dollars in the form of cheap loans, FDIC debt guarantees, TARP, AIG make-wholes, and a late-night label-shift from investment bank to bank holding company, giving the firm access to excessive Federal Reserve aid, access [the corporation] still has, it enabled and abetted Goldman’s criminal behavior. Goldman Sachs unloaded billions in worthless securities to its clients, decimating 401(k)s, pension and mutual funds. The firm misled investors about the true nature of these worthless securities, insisted the securities they were pushing on their clients were sound, and hid the material fact that, simultaneously, they were betting against these same securities—$2 billion against just one of their deals. The firm then had the gall to extort from its victims—us—to make good on its bets when the global economy it helped trash lost $40 trillion in worldwide wealth and huge insurance firms were unable to cover their bad debts.
The Securities Act of 1933, established in the wake of the massive fraud that pervaded the securities market before the 1929 Crash, was written to ensure that “any securities transactions are not based on fraudulent information or practices.” The act “prohibits deceit, misrepresentation, and other fraud in the sale of securities.” The subcommittee report indicates that Goldman Sachs clearly broke security laws.
As part of the political theater that has come to replace the legislative and judicial process, the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to a $550 million settlement whereby Goldman Sachs admitted it showed “incomplete” information in marketing materials and that it was a “mistake” to not disclose the nature of its portfolio selection committee. This fine was a payoff to the SEC by Goldman Sachs of about four days’ worth of revenue, and in return they avoided going to court. CEO Lloyd Blankfein apparently not only lied to clients, but to the subcommittee itself on April 27, 2010, when he told lawmakers: “We didn’t have a massive short against the housing market, and we certainly did not bet against our clients.” Yet, they did.
And yet nothing has been done. No Goldman Sachs officials have gone to trial. This is because there is no way within the corporate state to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs. There is no way through the formal mechanisms of power to restore the rule of law. There is no way to protect the ordinary citizen and the poor around the globe from the predatory activity of financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs. Since our courts refuse to put on trial the senior executives at Goldman Sachs, including Blankfein, who carried out these crimes and lied to cover them up, we will. Speculators like those in Goldman Sachs—who in the 17th century when speculation was a crime would have been hanged—must be prevented by law from again destroying our economy, preying on ordinary citizens, hoarding food so the poor starve and running our political process. We are paying for these crimes—not those who orchestrated perhaps the most massive fraud in human history. Our teachers, police, firefighters and public employees are losing their jobs so speculators like Blankfein can make an estimated $250,000 a day. Working men and women are losing their homes and going into personal bankruptcy because they cannot pay their medical bills. Our unemployed, far closer to 20 percent than the official 9 percent, are in deep distress all so a criminal class, a few blocks from where I speak, can wallow in luxury with mansions and yachts and swollen bank accounts.
What we are asking for today is simple—it is a return to the rule of law. And since the formal mechanisms of power refuse to restore the rule of law, then we, the 99 percent, will have to see that justice is done.
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80 Comments so far
Show AllThank you Chris, for walking the walk as well as talking the talk.
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doubledee wrote:
Thank you Chris, for walking the walk as well as talking the talk.
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My Comment.
Indeed!
I second that. Thank you CD for keeping the witness of Chris Hedges front and center.
Im a day late reading this but did hear of the Arrest. Let me extend my belated "Thank you Chris." I have read books by you and always read a your articles when I see you name titled.
And it is notable which of our politicians who talk the talk are actually walking the walk.
Good work Chris Hedges, et.al.
And to think that george w bush was inside the building at the time. Although i am not certain if he had already left by the time Hedges and others were arrested.
In the 1980's when the Savings and Loan scandal was exposed, over 1,000 of the banking criminals were arrested and sent to jail; ( Bush got off scott free even though he was implicated ) however, that banking scandal was peanuts, and like arresting a bank teller for embezzlement, compared to Goldman Sachs and the current Wall Street crooks! The current Wall Street banking, con is around 70 times worse than the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980's, yet not one Wall Street criminal has been arrested! Yes, like it has been said before: " THE BEST WAY TO ROB A BANK IS TO OWN ONE"!
We all know that criminals learn more about their trades when they're in prison. There, they can hear stories of what worked, and didn't, as shared by their fellow inmates.
Concerning the S & L debacle, lessons were learned there, too, mostly in the form of how to anesthetize the regulators so that fraud would not be perceived (or publicized) as such. Therefore an accounting firm like Arthur Anderson lends its imprimatur, and an Enron "system" of accounting ensues. Although neither of these entities were players in the big bank/bang rip-off that's bankrupt nations 'round the world, their TACTICS were probably studied and no doubt emulated.
Then, in the manner that torture became rebranded as interrogation, and War of Aggression merely the art of pursuing terrorists, the essence of a scandal engineered from the get-go instead was portrayed as a mistake that no one saw coming.
By the way, Paul, I used that meme often in the past, "Why rob a bank when you can become one?" That's essentially what the high-stakes gangsters did... using Ivy League logarithms the way the old Snake Oil salesmen held up their wary goods to a naive public, they made billions out of NOTHING. The art of the bamboozle probably qualifies as the Second Oldest Profession.
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Paul Revere wrote:
The current Wall Street banking, con is around 70 times worse than the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1980's, yet not one Wall Street criminal has been arrested! Yes, like it has been said before: " THE BEST WAY TO ROB A BANK IS TO OWN ONE"!
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Siouxrose (in reply to Paul Revere) wrote:
By the way, Paul, I used that meme often in the past, "Why rob a bank when you can become one?"
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My Comment:
FYI
"The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry" by William K. Black, 2005.
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Excerpt from "William K. Black", Wikipedia:
William Kurt Black (born 6 September 1951) is an American lawyer, academic, author, and a former bank regulator.[1] Black's expertise is in white-collar crime, public finance, regulation, and other topics in law and economics. He developed the concept of "control fraud", in which a business or national executive uses the entity he or she controls as a "weapon" to commit fraud.
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Excerpt from "William K. Black", Wikipedia:
Bill Moyers Journal appearance
On April 3, 2009 Black appeared on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS and provided critical commentary on the U.S. banking crisis.[8] In the interview with Bill Moyers,[9] Black asserted that the banking crisis in the United States that started in late 2008 is essentially a big Ponzi scheme; that the "liar loans" and other financial tricks were essentially illegal frauds; and that the triple-A ratings given to these loans was part of a criminal cover-up. He said that the "Prompt Corrective Action Law" passed after the Savings and loan crisis mandated that ailing banks should be put into receivership. Black also stated that trying to hide how bad the situation is will simply prolong the problem, as happened in Japan's lost decade. Black stated that Timothy Geithner is engaged in a cover-up, and that the administration does not want people to understand what went wrong or how bad the banking situation is today.
Testimony before Congress on the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers
On April 20, 2010, Black testified before the House Financial Services Committee in a hearing titled "Public Policy Issues Raised by the Report of the Lehman Bankruptcy Examiner." He testified about the role that Alt-A mortgages, what he called "liars loans," on residential real estate played in the downfall of Lehman Brothers. His testimony was that "Lehman’s failure is a story in large part of fraud. And it is fraud that begins at the absolute latest in 2001, and that is with their subprime and liars’ loan operations."[10] As explained in his prepared statement, his reference was to Aurora Loan Services, Inc., which was a subsidiary of Lehman: "Lehman’s principal source of (fictional) income and real losses was making (and selling) what the trade accurately called 'liar’s loans' through its subsidiary, Aurora. (The bland euphemism for liar’s loans was 'Alt-A.') Liar’s loans are 'criminogenic' (they create epidemics of mortgage fraud) because they create strong incentives to provide false information on loan applications."[11]
On the same page in his prepared testimony Black referenced an article from the Denver Post dated September 16, 2008, the day after Lehman filed for bankruptcy. The article reported on the uncertain fate of Aurora Loan Services, which was based nearby, and quoted Lehman's chief financial officer as saying the previous week that, "The majority of our write-downs were in Alt-A driven by an increase in.. . delinquencies and loss expectations." The article also said that Lehman was "among the first of its peers to originate home loans and securitize them for sale across the globe, and it fueled the growth of the Alt-A loan."[12]
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Article URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_K._Black
" Bush got off scott free even though he was implicated"
I think you mean Neil Bush, Dubya's younger brother.
If memory serves me correctly, little George was implicated as well.
They were all implicated, Neil, George jr, George Sr, and Jeb. And you could no doubt say the George Jr is up to his eye brows in this one.
http://rationalrevolution.net/war/bush_family_and_the_s.htm
Goldman Sachs is a "primary dealer" of the U.S. government. As many economists, analysts, and former Wall Street people have said, no big banksters will ever be prosecuted because of this reason. .......See Wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_dealer and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_Dealer_Credit_Facility.
Here's a grand idea on how to punish the 1%, should the occasion ever arise: Because they are so obsessed with 'wealth' and 'money' and 'power', when they are tried, judged and found guilty of the multiplicity of their crimes against humanity, force every single one of them to drink an ounce of MOLTEN GOLD (don't worry, you can recycle it).
You can bet your ass a whole lot of the Elite will suddenly be doing their damnedest to look like the rest of the homeless.
Galen: I would rather see a Citizens based class action lawsuit directed at these firms and their upper echelon employees. Then, when assets are taken, see checks distributed to every American who's part of the 99%. Quite a few laws were violated... lik the one used to seize assets from drug kingpins and/or Mafia... is there ONE honest regulator in the house?
There was a cop on the beat in New York, but he was caught with his pants down with some high class hookers. Seems we have another great one now in as the District Attorney for New York. He is hot on the trail of the banksters. Hope he can keep his pants on......
Galen, funny you should mention that thing about molten gold. The first time I went to the Amazon with Dreamchange we visited the Shuar Indians. The Shaur are an indigenous tribe still (or at least mostly) still living in their original ways. They are also still avoided both by the government and the oil companies. There is an interesting story about them and their encounter with the Spanish over a couple hundred years ago. As the story goes, the Spanish set up settlements in Shaur lands. The Spanish Gov. would use his military forces to round up Shaur woman and demand gold tributes. The Shuar being a nomadic people for the most part consulted with their shamans. The solution was to send out runners to all the Shuar communities to consolidate their numbers. This brought over 50,000 Shaur warriors to battle a Spanish force of 10,000. The Shuar killed all the Spanish save for the Governor and his assistant. They then laid him down and told him that since he was thirsty for gold they would provide it. They poured molten gold down his throat. Afterword they let the assistant go who watched the events, and told him to tell the rest of the Spanish that if they ever returned to their land, they would do the same for everyone! Needless to say, the Shaur are one of the few tribes sitll left alone in South America to this day. (The Shaur also like to shrink the heads of their enemies.)
Good story about the Shuar indians. That's something for Blankfein et al - pour molten gold into their "Goldman Sacks".
Chris's headline says it all: NO ARRESTS INSIDE GOLDMAN... where the rampage against humanity continues. Serfs are arrested outside by the black-shirts of the power-elite. THANK YOU CHRIS AND SUPPORTERS FOR MAKING OUR TRUE SITUATION IN AMERICA CRYSTAL CLEAR.
Is there even one other journalist, who like Chris, walked that talked?
Well, off the top of my head ROBERT.....Amy Goodman in 1991 was beaten to near death in East Timor while documenting the military slaughter there. And Dahr Jamail who unembedded himself in Iraq in order to get the truth out to the world, and put his life on the line time and time again - in places that no news outlet would ever send anyone. And there was the British journalist who was killed by the Israeli military a few years ago trying to tell the story of the occupation........
I'm glad Hedges made this speech. It is very informative and he has my respect. He will get fined for trespassing just like everyone else who was there. But i could be wrong. I am not positive what the charges will be.
Thanks for the information, but I knew that. My mistake was the fact that I intended it to be for the highest up of MAINSTREAM MEDIA, and still offer the question for them.
You are correct. The mainstream media has, long ago, given up real investigative reporting, even the on the spot type as being "imbedded" shows plainly, while the left still has such who get involved to tell the real story free of the influence of those who wish to manipulate said reporting.
My thought much better put.
Come on now hartmann, schultz, maddow and rhodess are out there protesting and getting arrested All the Time!
Indeed, our liberal press. Thanks for the chuckle
Goldman Sachs hoards rice, wheat, corn, sugar and livestock...
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More accurately Goldman hoards contracts of (future) delivery of these commodities.
Any entity who trades in these staples should be FORCED to take delivery.
Therefore tens of millions of barrels oil, corn and live hogs should be dumped into the pristine offices of Goldman Sachs.
If they desire to trade these commodities they should be forced to take possession of them.
"Therefore tens of millions of barrels oil, corn and live hogs should be dumped into the pristine offices of Goldman Sachs."
Nah. Just the toxic waste from oil processing, the pesticide and herbicide residue from the corn growing AgriCorps, and the megatons of raw, watery, methane producing pig shit from the feed lot farms and slaughter houses. That should do it..
We should do what the French farmers do: they spray the politicians with manure. Yes, the farmers show up en masse (so they can't be dispersed by the uniformed thugs) and literally aim their manure spreaders at the spreaders of political manure.
A few tons of rotting pig carcasses dumped in front of Goldman Sachs will probably not change the banksters' behavior, but maybe it will cut their fun.
French farmers tend to come to town on their tractors when they are pissed off. The robocops that we face are no match for the French farmers. They have driven off the likes of Monsanto for heavens sake.
Have you hugged your farmer today?
Which one,Archer, Daniels, or Midland? Kidding...I understand the concept of the family farm.
Hogs wouldn't go near these human scumbags. :) A truckload of pig shit would do nicely at the front entrance. (Have to admit though, the sight of live hogs running wild there would truly be a treat to see!
And remember, hogs are carnivorous, what a feast there'd be in there... and what a fitting end for pigs....to die by hogicide.
Pigs are actually Omniverous....
"If they desire to trade these commodities they should be forced to take possession of them."
I don't think Golman Sachs could fit any more hogs in their office space.
Yeah, No arrests inside Goldman, just outside. The good and lawful people are in cuffs and the criminals are in Rolexes.
My caption for the above picture:
A New York City policeman arrests peaceful freedom fighter Chris Hedges for exercising his first amendment rights in front of Goldman Sach's headquarters while inside the building a fascist banking cartel draws up plans to steal the officer's pension, health care and home.
Good one!
One of the two of the .001% interviewed this morning on msnbc stated that he admired his doorman's ambition to work 16 hours a day at two jobs and that the protesters on ws were just lazy. This reminded me of how my step father worked three jobs in the 70s so my mom didn't have to work in order to remain in the lower middle class and my brother always asking why his dad didn't have time to take him fishing or rarely came to watch him at his baseball games. So we have truly been living in an insane world where property rights are deemed more important than the protection of people for quite some time. People have been deemed disposable in this market economy forced upon us for way too long. But try talking a majority into lowering their living standards, much less those profitting from usury, dispite the fact that the commodification of man and natural are unnatural and were artificially created. Can we actually return to our original communities where reciprical benefits, not profits, are a civic virture? Or must they, like the demand for a return to the rule of law, be enforced by violence (per the responding commenters the other day) ?
"Can we actually return to original communities where reciprical benefits, not profits, are a civic virture?"
I think we can. I think basically Wall St. and their ilk are the abherration.
•"Before I knowed it, I was sayin' out loud, 'The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing.'... I says, 'What's this call, this sperit?' An' I says, 'It's love. I love people so much I'm fit to bust, sometimes.'... I figgered, 'Why do we got to hang it on God or Jesus? Maybe,' I figgered, 'maybe it's all men an' all women we love; maybe that's the Holy Sperit-the human sperit-the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's a part of.' Now I sat there thinkin' it, an' all of a suddent-I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it."
- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 4
I think basically most of us are part of that one big soul. The 99%. It's the 1% that seem to have lost their way. They've sold their part of the "big soul" for a price and someday, perhaps their last day on earth they will have an awakening.
For the record- here is a list of which corporations got bailed out:
http://projects.propublica.org/tables/treasury-facilities-loans
Citigroup - 2.42 trillion
Merril lynch 2.23 trillion
Morgan stanley 2.0 trillion
Bear stearns 962 billion
Bankmof america 931 billion
Barlays 802 billon
Goldman sachs 782 billon
And those are just the bailouts from a short period of time -- These bailouts are occuring on an ongoing basis.
Goldman also makes money by supplying the computer systems the markets use to trade - then they insert code to be able to see the 'Trades' before they occur so they can Frontrun the trades.
A Free Market is a Myth - a free market is impossible. The only thing that is FREE is the pass these vampire predator corporations for their Lawbreaking.
MT-to the 782 billion for Goldman sachs bailout should be added hundreds of billions more to AIG, whose "rescue" saved Goldman untold billions in what would have been investment additional losses.
One of the better write ups by Chris of late.
Even if subjected to rule of law these folks get off easy. We all know that. They should instead become truly poor and homeless - overnight. Give them some underwear and some bootstraps and see if they can get back up. One problem fixed.
When we arrest a drug cartel member we take all their wealth - THAT is what we need to do with each of these criminal organizations.
AND drop a felony convictionnon them so theynlose their voting rights and cqn NEVER get bonded again.
Then lets se them Pick them selves up by the bootstraps.
Hedges is da man! Thanks for all you do, sir.
Thank you, Chris, for speaking the truth and getting arrested while speaking the truth! You are a brave man, and the Occupy movement is made up of brave people.
The government, msm, Schultz, Maddow, Hartmann are all cowards who are on the take from the MOTU.
Thanks Chris for doing it and reporting it. We the 99 shall prevail. It appears we cannot expect justice to prevail inside the doors of Goldman-Sackso'money, Perhaps one objective of the movement will be to socialize banking and finance. Free ourselves from the tyranny of private banking and financial services, 'et viola!' one sector of the bad guys gone. Recover the trillions of dollars as public asset. Provide interest free loans for relief and socially necessary work. CANCEL DEBT...the pigs have been at the trough long enough. Expand the occupation. Move into the congress and send the shills home. Declare Peace. Have a national General Assembly built along the lines of the OWS general assembly. Write a new constitution consistent with the 21st century ensuring the rights of humans, not the rights of property. There is so much we can do. We have the knowledge, and now we know we have the power by sheer numbers and determination for a fair, safe world at peace.
I am deeply grateful to Chris Hedges for exposing very clearly the utterly criminal behavior of the men who love only gold.
Chris Hedges kicks Amerikkka's ass.
Great summary of the GS situation. This is why we Occupy!
Shiva