Your Tax Dollars at Work

Yes, I know our wise leaders in Washington labored mightily against the forces of global capital to pass the Dodd-Frank bill, and there are some good provisions contained within it. But on a deeper systemic level, they still haven't fixed a goddamn thing:

Goldman Sachs collected $2.9 billion from the American International Group as payout on a speculative trade it placed for the benefit of its own account, receiving the bulk of those funds after AIG received an enormous taxpayer rescue, according to the final report of an investigative panel appointed by Congress.

The fact that a significant slice of the proceeds secured by Goldman through the AIG bailout landed in its own account--as opposed to those of its clients or business partners-- has not been previously disclosed. These details about the workings of the controversial AIG bailout, which eventually swelled to $182 billion, are among the more eye-catching revelations in the report to be released Thursday by the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

The details underscore the degree to which Goldman--the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history--benefited directly from the massive emergency bailout of the nation's financial system, a deal crafted on the watch of then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who had previously headed the bank.

"If these allegations are correct, it appears to have been a direct transfer of wealth from the Treasury to Goldman's shareholders," said Joshua Rosner, a bond analyst and managing director at independent research consultancy Graham Fisher & Co., after he was read the relevant section of the report. "The AIG counterparty bailout, which was spun as necessary to protect the public, seems to have protected the institution at the expense of the public."

Translation: It used to be your money, and now it belongs to Goldman. They didn't really earn it, they just made a bet, and claimed it as their winnings.

There used to be a time when such behavior would have been considered a form of embezzlement, but I guess we've long passed the time when people in positions of power in this country can be held accountable for virtually anything they do, save receiving sproadic blowjobs from interns.

---Vitelius