Just another Reality-based bubble in the foam of the multiverse.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Low Spark of High Heeled Warfighters

There's always a new sound playing across the land, and if 'merikans didn't have the attention span of a goldfish they might remember where they heard it before:

...Culture is politics. Palin is at the red-hot center of age-old American resentments that have boiled up both from the ascent of our first black president and from the intractability of the Great Recession for those Americans who haven’t benefited from bailouts. As Palin thrives on the ire of the left, so she does from the disdain of Republican leaders who, with a condescension rivaling the sexism they decry in liberals, belittle her as a lightweight or instruct her to eat think-tank spinach.

The only person who can derail Palin is Palin herself. Should she not self-destruct, she will doom G.O.P. hopes of a 2012 comeback. But the rest of the country cannot rest easy. The rage out there is larger than Palin and defies partisan labeling. Her ever-present booster Continetti, writing in The Weekly Standard, suggested that she recast the century-old populist outrage of William Jennings Bryan by adopting the message “You shall not crucify mankind upon the cross of Goldman Sachs.” If Obama can’t tamp down that rage across the political map, Palin will at the very least pave the way for a demagogue with less baggage to pick up her torch.


Of course, the banksters are getting hip to that rage, since it's bad for their bottom line. But just in case they haven't, or aren't ready to spend the bucks to deal with it, the Editors of Pravda, a Company organ if there ever was one, have been kind enough to write it on the sidewalk for them:

...It is widely and correctly understood that Wall Street, with Goldman as a leader and with regulators in thrall, helped to inflate and profited from a credit bubble that burst and cost tens of millions of Americans their jobs, incomes, savings and home equity. American taxpayers continue to stand behind the bailouts and other government interventions that have stabilized the financial system, including Goldman, enabling the firm to post blowout profits in 2009 and to set aside $16.7 billion for bonuses so far this year.

Goldman does not see it that way. It says it never really needed government aid to survive the financial crisis. In that telling, taxpayer dollars have not helped to generate its post-crash profits, and anger over bonuses is jealousy over the good fortune of others.

That is absurd. Goldman has repaid its initial $10 billion bailout allotment, but that is only a sliver of its taxpayer support. The firm was paid $12.9 billion, for example, in the bailout of American International Group, and a report by the bailout’s inspector general refutes Goldman’s claim that it did not need the money. Perhaps the biggest continuing prop is that the government clearly considers Goldman too big to fail, which means that taxpayers are on the hook if Goldman faces the abyss again...


That's assuming, of course, that Goldman-Sachs doesn't only face the abyss when it's a profitable scenario to face the abyss. This is one vampire squid big enough to face down whatever looks back out at them. After all, it's got the Treasury behind it.

One speculates that there are other government organs backing, or ready to back, this club of boys from Yale et alia. For your consideration, the Company shareholders float another screed from the sidewalk for the Skull and Bones crowd that bother to glance at the gray lady, just in case the reality of it all hasn't sunk in:

...Wall Street banks are under regulatory pressure, and come election time, if unemployment is still above 10 percent and Wall Street is still paying itself big bonuses, lawmakers’ wrath might force broader pay curbs, tougher restrictions on what banks can do, or even a break up of the biggest banks.

They are already losing business because of their toxic reputations. One recent Goldman deal, for instance, to buy cheap assets from Fannie Mae, the hobbled mortgage lender, was blocked by the Treasury because it couldn’t be seen to be helping Wall Street benefit once again from the crisis. Critics say the negative media chatter is dragging on their share price.

Now, the main securities industry trade organization has hired Brunswick, a powerhouse public relations firm, to burnish the banks’ image, and banks are urging their staffs to cut down on conspicuous consumption and are canceling Christmas parties in an attempt to turn the reputational tide.

It is a tough brief, even for Manhattan’s skilled public relations industry. Last week, New York State’s comptroller reported that Wall Street profits this year are on track to exceed the record set at the height of the credit bubble. So what to do?


The Pravda Editors have their list of suggestions. But one is certain there are other disinformation specialists with the Company who might take an active interest in making sure the bankrollers of the war machine keep their tentacles into everything. After all, aside from the Old Ones of Wall Street the black hole of endless war has been the most efficient money sink we have.

They have something to teach each other.

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