Right around this time last year, I blogged about oil speculators and their willing enablers in the government, based on a report from "Countdown with Keith Olberman".
I got a surprising amount of pushback, and, after seeing a report in the New York Times that offered similar pushback (i.e. "it's not the speculators, it's peak oil that's the real problem"), I had second thoughts.
Well, clearly, Matt Taibbi, the political writer for Rolling Stone and a regular on "Real Time with Bill Maher", has more time & access to do way more due diligence than me. He goes several steps further than Keith: not only does he blame the speculators for last summer's oil spike, and not only does he name the venerable old financial concern Goldman Sachs as one of the biggest offenders.
He points to a larger conspiracy of culture: there's no sneering Moriarty at the center of it all behind the scenes, but the corporate culture of greed at the firm is so pervasive that just about everybody who works there and then takes a job in government later appears to act in the best interests of Goldman to the detriment of the public.
And when I say "detriment to the public", I mean "bankrupting pensions" and "instigating food riots" detriment.
Moreover, he holds Goldman largely responsible for most of the economic bubbles we've seen since thr 1929 stock market crash, and in virtually every case, they make huge amounts of money for their employees and get a slap on the wrist from a compliant government.
And what's the latest Goldman Sachs-backed bubble scam, according to Matt Taibbi?
Two words: "Cap" and "Trade".
The article is superlong, but man, is it worth it. And, if it's true, REALLY f'n scary.
Read this scanned copy at this link:
Zero Hedge: Goldman Sachs: "Engineering Every Major Market Manipulation Since The Great Depression"
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