It's the most wonderful time of year for Goldman Sachs.
Time for Lloyd Blankfein and the rest of Goldman's board to gather and dole out their long anticipated $23 billion bonus and compensation pool among all their executives doing God's work.
It's the latest example of Goldman putting the profits of their company over the good of our country. And it has to stop.
Last month, hundreds of ordinary Americans gathered outside Goldman's Washington, D.C. headquarters to demand the firm clean up its act.
Goldman's response? A half-hearted apology for tanking our economy and a meaningless PR blitz disguised as a jobs campaign.
That's not good enough.
That's why we're taking our demands directly to the board room. Goldman Sachs must use their next board meeting to come clean about the true devastation they've caused our economy.
We know that the loan servicer they own has only helped 12 percent of families eligible for loan modifications save their homes.
We know what happened to the 150 workers at the Stella D'Oro cookie factory in the Bronx. They lost their jobs and their health care when a company owned in part by Goldman Sachs bought Stella D'Oro and closed the factory down.
We know that as largest shareholder of Burger King, Goldman pays workers poverty-level wages and forces taxpayers to pick up their employees' tab on health care and other assistance--to the tune of an estimated $273.4 million in 2007 alone.
We know that New Jersey has to pay Goldman Sachs nearly $1 million a month for the next two years after the derivative deal the firm sold the state went sour.
But how deep does Goldman's destruction go? How tight is their stranglehold over our economy?
The American people have handed over nearly $64 billion in bailouts and other subsidies to Goldman Sachs. That's 64 billion reasons why they should listen to our demands.
The American people deserve to know:
1. How Goldman's investment strategies have impacted jobs for working Americans.
Burger King and Stella D'Oro are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the thousands of companies Goldman has investments in. How many of these companies have laid Americans off? Or picked up and moved jobs overseas? Do these companies offer wages that support a family and offer health care and retirement plans?
2. The extent of Goldman Sachs' involvement in our continued mortgage crisis. How many loans do they own that are currently in foreclosure? How many are in default? How many trial and permanent modifications have they made?
3. How many risky deals Goldman Sachs sold to our states and cities.
The risky insurance policies firms like Goldman Sachs sold to state and local governments have become ticking time bombs. The deals that have already exploded have already come to light--like the one in New Jersey--but there are countless others ready to detonate.
We can no longer allow Goldman to write the rules of our economy. We can no longer allow Lloyd Blankfein to control our destiny.
Goldman Sachs needs to come clean. And if they don't respond to the demands of taxpayers, they should be forced to respond through an investigation by Congress.