Another charade in Washington---Are Goldman's 8 million pages proof we live in a democracy?

The figures in the Goldman scandal are staggering.  Paulson, the firm that profited to the tune of $1 billion dollars by allegedly participating in selecting assets for investors that were thought to be a bad bet and then betting on their failure, is just one more example of the corrupt gang that control the resources of society. 

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Goldman Sachs first heard about this investigation back in 2008 when it received a subpoena from the SEC for documents.  So naturally, being the upstanding characters that they are, Goldman sent some--------- EIGHT MILLION PAGES.

Of course, a simple no we didn't do it and here's the evidence could have sufficed.  But 8 million pages take a fair bit to get through and require significant funds to do so.   It reminds me of the times I was a negotiator for my Union against our employer and they would weigh us down with paperwork and formality.  In fact, negotiations with the boss was always that, a tactic to keep us from actually doing agitational and organizational work among our membership and keeping us busy.  After all, they got paid to do that------in our case by the ratepayers as I was a public employee.

When a more aggressive, membership and action oriented leadership of which I was a part, took over in the nineties, we always had a strategy of turning to the membership, organizing the membership to act on its own behalf through some sort of direct action that changes the balance of forces--unlike the Labor hierarchy from the top of the AFL-CIO down, we encouraged the membership to act on its own behalf rather than pay the dues and keep quiet.

We should not be fooled by this charade with the SEC. As an earlier post commented, if this were a worker or youth committing such crimes, they would be handcuffed and thrown in Jail------the chances for a black youth might be even more severe, shot in the back perhaps while reaching for his coat.  Two children were handcuffed and led out of a NYC schoolroom for scribbling on their desks. The reason for the SEC filing is a continuation of an ongoing war between different sections of the capitalist class.  This war was between the old time bourgeois if you like and the private equity lords that were often referred to as the “Masters of the Universe”, not used so much today you will notice. A major problem was the Financial Sector's dealings that were behind the backs of the class as a whole, deals that took place privately between individuals or groups of individuals as opposed to in the exchanges that the capitalist class set up to keep some sort of order, that protect them from themselves. Like the sharks with the presence of blood in the water, the speculators, coupon clippers, and other wasters are known to turn on each other threatening the system as a whole, if not restrained.  Derivatives, hedge fund activity, and other private equity deals all fall under this secretive category and have been the source of massive profits and lower taxes.

"Someone must "fall on their swords" for the devastating decline in this company's persona and they may be forced to do so..." comments one financial analyst.  The hatred of the rich, the anger at the bankers, the shift in the mood with regard to capitalism and the so-called free market system------these are the objective conditions that are driving the SEC's investigation of Goldman.  Goldman and other bankers have been in Washington bribing politicians to get them to curb the administrations attempts at regulating the derivatives and financial services industry. But there is a genuine fear that the intense anger and hatred of the rich that lies beneath the surface of US society may break through in to open social unrest.  Someone at Goldman must fall on their sword, will be forced to do so "for public relations reasons" the same analyst adds in recognition of this mood.

Not much, if anything will happen to these thugs, this is a good time for the enemies of the financial industry to reign in their colleagues whose behavior has threatened the stability of the system and hopefully head off any potential social movement that could arise and give expression to the class anger that exists.

There was a similar charade back in 2008 when the auto bosses went cap in hand to the taxpayer.  A phony stage was set and their friends in Congress chided them for their bad behavior.  Ford Motor Co’s Allan Mulally’s announced that he would work for $1 salary that year in order to do his bit to save the system from collapse.  I wrote in December 2008, "It shows the level of contempt they have for working people that they can announce this to the US working class from any forum except Saturday Night Live.  Mulally earned $28 million in 2006 for four months on the job. He got a $7.5 million hiring bonus and another $11 million to compensate him for benefits he lost from his previous job at Boeing.  He also received 4 million in Ford stock options last year."

There will no doubt be some tighter regulation on paper.  But this financial regulation, and the slap on the cheek that the billionaires at Goldman will receive for their actions ( bilking investors---workers are OK) will not prevent further crisis. Bubbles, speculation and overproduction are an inherent aspect of a market economy and new crisis are already in the making, (China, commercial real estate, further financial speculation, rampant overcapacity/overproduction in all spheres of production) capital must find a home.

They want to fix the economy, prevent, or at least mitigate these crisis that threaten the system's very existence and have done so for 400 years, On the potential collapse of the US auto industry back in 2008, David Bonior, an Obama advisor on the industry,  commented that it had to be saved by state intervention, by the taxpayers, but, "The trick is to do it within the construct of capitalism-----enlightened capitalism"  he added recognizing that the "old" capitalism is a bit of a dirty word these days. WSJ 11-18-08) 

But capitalism cannot be made nice, cannot be made in to a kinder, gentler system---it is and always has been a state of war, a system of coercion and violence. A tribunal of Goldman's victims, homeowners, renters, the poor and low waged who lost their homes in the subprime, or the mom and pop that lost their business----a tribunal of their victims, not a hearing by their peers, this is the way justice will be served on Goldman and the system they manage.

And it won't take 8 million pages of documents to figure out what went wrong.