Goldman Sachs

Quote from bloomberg article, a must read:

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A Goldman Sachs International adviser defended compensation in the finance industry as his company plans a near-record year for pay, saying the spending will help boost the economy.

“We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all,” Brian Griffiths, who was a special adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said yesterday at a panel discussion hosted by St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The panel’s discussion topic was, “What is the price of morality in the marketplace?”

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., based in New York, set aside $16.7 billion for compensation and benefits in the first nine months of 2009, up 46 percent from a year earlier and enough to pay each worker $527,192 for the period. The amount set aside this year is just shy of the all-time high $16.9 billion allocated in the first three quarters of 2007. Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally in New York declined to comment.

Couple that with this article:

“The influence of money and lobbies on Washington has reached a shameful level,” Paul Volcker, chairman of the newly formed Economic Recovery Advisory Board, told the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. “Not to mention the fact that, since many Treasury nominees have not been confirmed by Congress, Geithner is surrounded by private advisors. Eight months into the new administration, the Treasury does not yet have a staff of [its own] officials. And this raises the question of using informal advisors who come from Wall Street. It should not happen.”

It’s not just Geithner’s aides that have ties to Wall Street, either. The Treasury Secretary’s phone records show he had at least 80 conversations with top financial figures since January 28. That includes 10 discussions with JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s (NYSE: JPM) Jamie Dimon and 22 with Goldman Sachs Chief Lloyd Blankfein. Blackrock boss Larry Fink and Citigroup luminaries Dick Parsons and Vikrim Pandit also ranked high on Geithner’s call registry.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. paid another advisor to Geithner, Gene Sperling, $887,727 for advice on its charitable giving, and fulltime lobbyist Mark Patterson $637,492, according to Bloomberg.

Shadow market trading (dark pools)
Dark pools, the largest of which are run by banks such as Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, account for an estimated 10 to 15 percent of overall U.S. equity volume.

Summary
Goldman Sachs reminds me of an parasite. (or great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money) To say that America and the world shouldn't question outrageous bonuses coupled with the behavior of Front Running orders (illegal), undo influence in the government, and selling MBS knowing they where worthless, well, thats some brass balls.

And like any parasite, it SHOULD continue to suck from the host, until the host decides it has had enough. And right now, America is indifferent from the parasites sucking it dry.