NP - Goldman Sachs: Masters of the Eurozone

[David Morris]

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/goldman-sachs-masters-of-eurozone-by.html

*First*, when a "private" group's chief individuals flow back and forth
constantly between government and that group, the group can be said to be
"part" of government, or to have "infiltrated" government, or to have been
"folded into" government. (Your phrasing will be determined by who you
think is the instigator.)

*Second*, consider how in general the "world of money" and the parallel
world of "friends of money" — its enablers, adjuncts, consiglieri and
retainers — flow in and out of the world of government, [...]What we're
about to see is the infiltration of "friends of money" into key positions
in the eurozone, and in particular, the infiltration of friends of money
from one huge repository of money and guardian of its perquisites — the
megabank Goldman Sachs — into those governmental positions.

[...]

This is The Goldman Sachs Project. Put simply, it is to hug governments
close. Every business wants to advance its interests with the regulators
that can stymie them and the politicians who can give them a tax break, but
this is no mere lobbying effort. Goldman is there to provide advice for
governments and to provide financing, to send its people into public
service and to dangle lucrative jobs in front of people coming out of
government. The Project is to create such a deep exchange of people and
ideas and money that it is *impossible to tell the difference between the
public interest and the Goldman Sachs interest*.

[...]

*How Goldman Sachs Screwed Greece*

There's a special place in hell, though, for what Goldman did, and through
its "alumni" is doing, to Greece. This has been much covered (if not much
read), so I'll quote *The Independent*, then send you to other sources.

*Mr Draghi has been dogged by controversy* over the accounting tricks
conducted by Italy and other nations on the eurozone periphery as they
tried to squeeze into the single currency a decade ago. *By using complex
derivatives, Italy and Greece were able to slim down the apparent size of
their government debt*, which euro rules mandated shouldn't be above 60 per
cent of the size of the economy. And the brains behind several of those
derivatives were the men and women of Goldman Sachs.

[...]

In other words, banks like Chase and Goldman knowingly larded up the nation
of Greece with a crippling future debt burden, then turned around and
helped the world bet against Greek debt. …

Operations like the Greek swap/short index maneuver were easy money for
banks like Goldman and Chase – hell, it’s a no-lose play, like cutting a
car’s brake lines and then betting on the driver to crash.
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