Rolling Stone and Me

It isn't that often that I read Rolling Stone Magazine and even less often that I agree with any of its positions. But Matt Taibbi's recent article on Goldman Sachs made me laugh because a year or more ago, I started to see the mortgage plot being recreated with cap and trade climate change policy. Most people thought that it was a wild conspiracy theory though few said anything. But last week Goldman demonstrated, once again, its resilience announcing huge profits. So far, no one has questioned where those profits were generated---at taxpayer’s expense---in the worst recession since 1929.

Taibbi excoriates Goldman Sachs for its role in the Internet, oil and housing bubbles, and then identifies their next great scheme.

“And instead of credit derivatives or oil futures or mortgage-backed CDOs, the new game in town, the next bubble, is in carbon credits — a booming trillion dollar market that barely even exists yet, but will if the Democratic Party that it gave $4,452,585 to in the last election manages to push into existence a groundbreaking new commodities bubble, disguised as an "environmental plan," called cap-and-trade. The new carbon-credit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that's been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won't even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.”

It is time American’s realize that it's always about the money now and forever. It is one of the great weaknesses of human nature---greed, which, when mixed with the capitalist spirit, too often leads down the same debauched road. Making matters even more amusing is how often the committed advocates are used/manipulated by the powers that be to make buckets of money while ruining the economy.