Is Being Anti-Goldman Sachs Being Anti-American?

The following line in a Financial Times article attributed to Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein caught my attention.

One person who received a call from the Goldman chief said he was told the regulator's case against the bank was politically motivated and would ultimately "hurt America."

It hits home how disconnected Goldman Sachs and Wall Street are from Main Street when Blankfein believes the profits of a company that creates financial transactions, and pays itself multi million dollar bonuses, are vital to making America a better place.

In the 1950's, government officials could say, "what's good for General Motors is good for the nation."

No one thinks like that now. Especially when Wall Street is concerned.

I can see why Blankfein can get confused. For too long, Washington has been a farm team for Wall Street. Lobbyists come to Wall Street for loads of cash and politicians jump to do their bidding.

Goldman Sachs has been a revolving door between Washington, Wall Street and the financial media. CNBC has Goldman alums like Jim Cramer and Erin Burnet, pitching the Goldman's story to a skeptical public.

Henry Paulson, Blankfein's predecessor at Goldman Sachs, was the Secretary of the Treasury who approved billion dollar bailouts for Goldman and other firms on Wall Street.

Goldman thanked us the next year by paying themselves record bonuses.

My argument, made in a recent Huffington Post article, Too Big For Jail? was that Goldman is getting off too easy.

The real scandal of the entire bailout mess was how money was funneled through AIG to pay "counterparties" like Goldman Sachs 100 cents on the dollar.

It cost the taxpayers billions and we received no possibility of profits if anything went right.

Americans of all ideologies are angry.

We have tea parties by conservatives and protests by liberals. Many people dont't go to parties or march in the streets, they are simply voting incumbents out of office, one by one.

Goldman won't have as many well fed, well lobbyied, loyalists in Washington next year.

And even fewer in the United States who will possibly believe Blankfein's fantasy that what is good for Goldman is good for anyone else.

Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is on tour, promoting his second book, Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win The Lottery

McNay is an award winning, syndicated financial columnist.

You can read more about Don at www.donmcnay.com