CODEPINK Behind Blankfein: "Taxpayers Want Their Money Back"
When a few CODEPINK women and I heard the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, would be speaking at an Institutional Investors Conference in DC today, we ran over to say hello.
A few minutes into his talk, my colleague Desiree Fairooz and I calmly walked on the stage with our banner saying "We want our $$$ back." Goldman Sachs, after all, has been slurping from the public trough. It got $10 billion in TARP funds (remember that the architect of the TARP program, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, proceeded Blankfein as CEO of Goldman Sachs). Goldman Sachs went back to "sucking the tit of the taxpayer," as Senator Grassley so graphically put it, by taking another $13 billion from taxpayer money given to AIG. (Was it just a coincidence that Paulson was Treasury Secretary when AIG was bailed out?)
Mr. Blankfein was quite nice in giving us a moment to display our banner, then said he would address our concerns at the end of this talk. So we agreed, walking off the stage and sitting back down.
Meanwhile, the staff of the event and the hotel security swarmed around us, demanding that we leave. We politely refused, saying we had to wait until the end to ask our questions. They threatened to call the police. We said that was up to them, but we would be staying.
During his talk, which was mostly fluff, Blankfein preached about the need to peg compensation to performance of the firm. He failed to mention, however, that he received $43 million in compensation last year at the very time that his company reported its first quarterly loss since becoming a public company and its stock fell more than 60 percent. So much for performance-pegged compensation.
During the question time at the end of his talk, we approached the microphones to ask our questions. We began at the mic on one side of the room to ask a question, but security followed us and took away the mic. So we walked to the other side of the room to use the other mic, but they took that one away, too. We repeated this until we realized they were never going to allow us to ask our questions, so we walked onstage again.
I started to ask my questions: "Why should taxpayers reward the failures of Wall Street? Why should we bailout Goldman Sachs?" but they cut off the stage mic. While I was being carted away by security, I asked if Blankfein believed in socializing losses and privatizing profits. He didn't respond.
Meanwhile, Des, cool as a cucumber, walked back to our seats to get our belongings, repeating that we, the taxpayers, wanted our money back.
After we left, Mr. Blankfein acknowledged that our message was "real and visceral" and reflected "a prevailing view in the world." We were glad to have brought a bit of real, visceral taxpayer anger into the roomful of folks scraping and bowing at the feet of this failed CEO!
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Courageous, not really. maybe you should get jobs and pay taxes first.
Goldman Sachs will do just fine sweetie. Blankfein is far from a "failed CEO" as you call him.
I don't know if its jealousy that is driving you to miss some basic facts.
Goldman was not balied out. It was asked to take TARP money in order to increase lending into the economy. They are paying 5% interest and will return it as soon as the Government gives them the green light.
You need to find another cause, your argument rings hollow on many levels.
You must be a goldie. Goldman Sachs was the receiver of the most taxpayer money from AIG.
Goldman's boys are running the government pony show.
How do you like living in a fascist country when the banks trump everything, including the people?
Pretty Gutsy!
I can't believe they kept moving the microphone on you. Shows how powerful a single question can be!
And the fatcat who said he would answer questions when people were witnessing the event, said ???? while all this was going on.
He robs the country and still gets the respect that the citizens who have given him millions get the boot.
For the people by the people. As long as you are rich and powerful
The ruling elite don't want to anger the suckers called the US taxpayer so that they turn into mobs.
They want to steal all of our money as quietly as possible and before you know it it all will be gone.
Soon they will be announcing cutbacks to Social Security and Medicare.
America is going to look very different a year or two from now.
Get ready for the Dark Ages in America.
Get out your knee pads as there will be a lot of bowing as the carriages carrying the Elites roll by.
ABSOULTELY AWESOME
GOOD FOR YOU!
THIS IS SOOO NEEDED.
Change we can believe in
Mission Accomplished
CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
dejavu
We need much more of this, ladies! I'm glad there wasn't any harm done to you, as under bush.
We once put a millions of people in the streets to end an illegal and immoral war.
Today we fight another kind of war--a class war, where the financial institutions threaten to bankrupt this country and destroy our Constitution and our way of life.
We must respond with the same commitment and vigor we once showed. We must come together, unified and powerful to take a stand in saving our country again from forces even more insidious than the military industrial complex we once defeated!
http://new
Kudos to you Media and your friend !
Try to do this to Obama as DemocracyNow's host did last year....
And when you left, the entire room erupted in laughter. They all know what I know. Obama's team will suck every last dime out of the pockets of the middle class and present it on a silver platter to the theives of Wall St. And there's not a damn thing any of us can do about it.
GreatNews27 writes ... "there's not a damn thing any of us can do about it"
I am sorry I voted for Obama. I support the Presidency but oppose Obama's bailout plans. YES YOU CAN defeat Obama's robbery plans to steal from US taxpayers to pay Wall St. We should channel our outrage to block Obama from selling worthless Wall St products.
Follow CodePink's example. Create buzz in the masses.
Spread the message via emails.
Identify groups that oppose the Obama robbery and help joint organizations of such groups, economists, journalists. Send emails asking how you can help.
Show how angry you are to your local government representa
Volunteer your time to organize and mobilize
It is time to give Codepink treatment to President Obama.
Thank You. Code Pink ROCKS.
Thank you! I am glad that someone is speaking up! So few are speaking up to these banksters that have taken over our gov't with all this fraud and sham. Sadly, Goldman Sach's was a top campaign contributor to Obama just like bush, so nothing has changed fiscally, and the same people who created this problem are still getting richer as they keep up with their games of deceit.
Thank you for everything you do to bring attention to the widespread corruption and inequity in our society. I love reading every single news story and will never forget the "blood on your hands" picture.
Courageous. And commendable.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
