Everyone is buzzing -- and the Goldman Sachs PR team is desperately spinning -- about the powerhouse op-ed in the New York Times this morning by the (as of this morning, apparently) former Goldman Sachs exec Greg Smith, who resigned in protest of their "toxic and destructive" environment. It is a painful reminder of how out-of-control Goldman has become, but this isn't just about one company or one set of immoral executives; it's about the Wall Street system and its allies in the political and media world.
Stories like Smith's, along with the Mack Truck-load of books and articles written since the financial panic of 2008 about Wall Street greed and corruption, are a reminder of the breakdown of basic morality in the entire culture and structure of Wall Street, and of the destruction and potential destruction this lack of ethics causes the rest of our economy. According to virtually all the reporting, writing and research we have seen in the last four years, this kind of short-term greed and willful corruption -- and in many cases, outright law breaking -- has been baked into the Wall Street system, so that the honest players like Smith are systematically discouraged, punished economically, and driven from the companies. Only the people obsessed with short-term greed remain. The events of 2008 demonstrated in way too dramatic a fashion the incredible harm that does to the entire economy.
You have to be amused by the massive irony of all this, as these pillars of our society and their close allies in government and the media go on and on about what is moral and what is not. Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, with its $75 trillion in toxic assets and its terrible track record of heartless foreclosures, talks of the moral hazard of writing down mortgage debt for homeowners. One of Wall Street's biggest defenders in the media is Rush Limbaugh, who calls young women sluts and prostitutes when they disagree with him. Goldman Sachs' closest political ally, Mitt Romney, wants to shut down Planned Parenthood because they are apparently so immoral.
The irony is deep because the conservatives who are such fans of Wall Street and so worshipful of free markets say that they are the ones who are for traditional morality. The problem is that the kind of greed they defend gets its morality from a very untraditional place: Ayn Rand, who argued that selfishness was not only a virtue, but really the only one that mattered, and that generosity was immoral because it helped society's leeches. When a company like Goldman encourages its executives to, as Smith put it, "callously talk about ripping their clients off," they are simply following Rand's twisted version of a morality based on greed and selfishness.
When Republicans like Romney, Santorum, Limbaugh or GOP budget author Paul Ryan (who openly sings Rand's praises and speaks of her as his biggest influence) speak of morality and values, they seem to never talk of things like companies not cheating people, or fairness, or kindness, or generosity. I suspect that is because they agree with Rand that those are false values that don't actually matter, but maybe the not cheating/fairness set of values is somewhere on their list but not high enough to mention or think about as much as, say, stopping people having sex.
The other rich irony here is that the man these guys claim to worship as their savior, Jesus of Nazareth, cared a whole lot more about the fairness and kindness stuff. He despised greed and wealthy people taking advantage of the poor, and preached over and over about generosity, kindness, helping others less fortunate, and that whole set of values. The sex thing, not so much. Jesus never condemned homosexuality even though it was common in ancient Greek and Roman culture, and never mentioned abortion even though it was a very common practice in that era. He mentioned adultery a few times, mostly in a long list of other sins to avoid, and told the authorities about to stone a woman to death for committing adultery that he who was without sin should cast the first stone. He openly socialized with prostitutes. This was not a man obsessed with sexual sins.
These modern day followers of his sure seem to be, though. Wall Street is brazenly ripping off its clients and tanking our entire economy, and the Romney/Santorum/Limbaugh team has no time to castigate them, but they sure seem to have all the time in the world to talk about the sinfulness of gays and abortion and birth control.
Maybe we should try to reorient their thinking about morality. My organization, American Family Voices, has put up a petition calling on Mitt Romney to call on Lloyd Blankfein to step down as CEO of Goldman Sachs. I think Romney should be the one to lead the charge on this because Goldman is his single largest source of money, and if I were Romney, I would want to do everything I could to make clear that my values were not identical to Blankfein's values.
It is amazing we live in a culture that allows the wealthiest and most powerful companies in the country cheat their clients and the public at large with impunity, and that their closest political allies aren't held to account as well. Help us shine a spotlight on this by signing our petition.
Follow Mike Lux on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ProgressiveLux
Philip Jennings: Gullible Muppets and Goldman Sachs: What Does It Say to the 99%
Robert Scheer: At Last, Some Decency on Wall Street
Mitch Feierstein: Vampire Squids, Transparent Tanks
Lawrence M. Krauss: Does Conservatism Have to Be Synonymous With Ignorance?
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Obviously, Mr. Lux has never read Ayn Rand. She NEVER said that generosity is immoral. She had no problem with being generous towards people who deserve it. What she criticized was taking money by force from those who earned it in order to give it to the very poor, the very rich, or anyone in between. She criticized the moral code that disarmed people in the face of such immoral theft--the moral code which says that a person is obligated to give up the wealth he creates to others, because his life is insignificant compared to some Higher Good.
Nor did Ayn Rand EVER advocate ripping people off, or dealing in dishonesty in any way. As John Galt, the hero of her greatest novel, Atlas Shrugged, put it: "I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, NOR ASK ANOTHER MAN TO LIVE FOR MINE." She opposed sacrificing others to oneself, jut as much as she opposed sacrificing oneself to others.
Would that be the Judeo-Christian code that goes on and on about: not lying, not stealing, not exploiting the poor, widows, your workers, etc. Didn't Christ warn against religious hypocrits
who were always doing that in his time. I think he called them Pharisees.
Just wondering.
Sophie is certainly correct that Ayn Rand most emphatically does not endorse anything like Blankfein, Romney, or Santorum. Come to think of it, they strongly resemble her usual villians. In fact they are worse!
"Didn't Christ warn against religious hypocrits"
Yes, while setting death as their standard of morality, he warned them against being hypocrites. To live as Christ is to nail oneself to a cross for the sins of others. It is not a way of living, but a way of dying. So every Christian who seeks to live is necessarily a hypocrite. They have to accept that guilt, and perpetually seek to allay it by doing the bidding of some higher moral authority: God, the Church, the Pope, their pastor, their mom, Rick Santorum...
And even those that become the sacrificial goat walk away with tens of millions.
http://www.sjtrek.com/trek/rules/
Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
Obama said after the 2010 midterms, "I heard you loud and clear". Americans said they prefer the right-wing-corrupt-working-for-the-top-.05% governing style. Obama is delivering.
And if liberals say they didn't vote for right wing corrupt politicians, if they stayed at home and didn't vote, that was a vote for a corrupt right winger.
"Elections have consequences"........
I think that Politicians should be fined double for any crime while they are in office.
Now figure out how to fine these Wall Street conniving white collar criminals triple for they are killing and harming millions of American workers. And if you think that killing is too strong a word, think about the lack of healthcare for people who if they lived in most industrialized countries would have access to healthcare, instead on living under bridges, because they lost their, job, home, and family due to their greed.
Every victim of Goldman, including drivers paying more at the pump for their oil market manipulation, the people of Greece who were fleeced, their municipal bond scam victims, homeowners who had their American dream stolen, and of course the taxpayers who footed the bill for their tax evasion and bailouts ALL deserve justice.
The CEO, executives and board need to go, to jail, with their fortunes confiscated and the company needs to be liquidated. Former executives need to be fired from their government jobs.
Put up a petition for that and I will sign.
Both parties should begin by donating every dollar GS has given to their campaigns to a foreclosure victims fund.
http://johannhari.com/2010/07/02/how-goldman-sachs-gambling-on-starving-the-worlds-poor-and-won
How Goldman Sachs gambled on starving the world's poor - and won : Johann Hari
"...It starts with an apparent mystery. At the end of 2006, food prices across the world started to rise, suddenly and stratospheÂrically. Within a year, the price of wheat had shot up by 80 per cent, maize by 90 per cent, rice by 320 per cent. In a global jolt of hunger, 200 million people - mostly children - couldn't afford to get food any more, and sank into malnutritiÂon or starvationÂ. There were riots in more than 30 countries, and at least one government was violently overthrownÂ. Then, in spring 2008, prices just as mysteriousÂly fell back to their previous level. Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, calls it "a silent mass murder", entirely due to "man-made actions."
[snip]
So it has come to this. The world's wealthiest speculatorÂs set up a casino where the chips were the stomachs of hundreds of millions of innocent people. They gambled on increasing starvationÂ, and won. Their Wasteland moment created a real wasteland. What does it say about our political and economic system that we can so casually inflict so much pain?.."
Even a slightly fair "article" would ask why the President and administration, and Democrat-controlled Senate, for the past 3 years have not acted decisively to condemn, castigate, and prosecute Wall Street crimes. It might have something to do with the number of them that have past, current, and future jobs at places like Goldman Sachs.
And BTW, in case you didn't know this either, it ain't over yet....