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Great political cartoon. Laugh or cry, your choice
Bob Hormats was sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, who helped to enrich the genocidal regime in Sudan, caused me to wonder how many Goldman alumni occupy positions of power in THIS administration
Robert Rubin, former Goldman chairman and key architect of our ill-fated financialized economy. Rubin’s protege include Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, NEC Director Larry Summers, Michael Froman, Jason Furman and Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Brill. Furman, OMB Director Peter Orszag and Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs-designate Lael Brainard were all closely associated with Rubin’s think tank, the Hamilton Project, housed at the Brookings Institute.
But Goldman’s influence in the White House is not limited to the Rubin network. In addition to Hormats, at least five Goldman alumni hold high-level positions in the administration. Mark Patterson, whose appointment as Chief of Staff at Treasury highlighted Obama’s willingness to make arbitrary exceptions to his new ethics policies, was Goldman’s chief D.C. lobbyist. Diana Farrell, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, worked at Goldman for several years in the late 1980s. Philip Murphy, recently nominated to be ambassador to Germany, spent 23 years at Goldman, rising to the position of senior director.
More than nine months into the new administration, two Bush holdovers with Goldman ties have managed to hold on to influential positions at Treasury. Former Goldman VP Neel Kashkari, Henry Paulson’s ballyhooed choice to hand out TARP funds, continues to administer the program as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability.
One of the more alarming of the Goldman-turned-regulators is Karthik Ramanathan, who traded derivatives in Goldman’s London and New York offices prior to this appointment as Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets by Bush. He now serves in the same role as an interim capacity.
This is great article about Goldman Sachs:
“If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.”
Why did all of Wall St give more money to Obama than McCain? Why did all the car dealerships that didn’t give money to Obama get closed down? Why do the drug companies, which are a major part of skyrocketing medical costs, get a promise of no price controls once they signed on with Obamacare? Why is Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, who protected Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from reform all these years, get left in charge of the finance committees and crooks like Geithener and Bernanke still running the fed and treasury when they helped create this mess? Why did GE’s Jeffrey Imelt get a seat on the NY Fed after supporting Uhbama? Why did some firms that were Goldman Sachs competitors get allowed to fail? Why did the White House approve the bonus payouts when they did the bailout and then only pretended outrage when the bonuses became public? Too bad there weren’t more news agencies out there besides Fox that dared ask an unscripted question.
July 22nd, 2010 at 4:04 am
good morning
July 24th, 2010 at 2:31 am
You’d like that wouldn’t you?
Slavery has been outlawed.
(just a joke)
All politicians need fundraising to get elected. Don’t assume that he is “own”-ed because of the contributions he got.
July 24th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
This practice has been going on long before Obama took office.
July 24th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Source Please? You are not serious about this i hope. Let’s see I believe you have him mixed up with G.W. Bush.
July 27th, 2010 at 6:28 am
You can rephrase to make Steve happy and say
Has Obama been bought by Goldman.
Yes he has
July 30th, 2010 at 3:27 am
No. Wall Street owns washington.
A close second are defense contractors.
And coming in third is China.
Remove Obama’s name from the question and just put ‘any random politician’.
August 2nd, 2010 at 3:08 am
Money! Money! Money!
August 3rd, 2010 at 4:01 am
Goldman Sachs own WH and everyone in it.
Great political cartoon. Laugh or cry, your choice
Bob Hormats was sworn in as Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, who helped to enrich the genocidal regime in Sudan, caused me to wonder how many Goldman alumni occupy positions of power in THIS administration
Robert Rubin, former Goldman chairman and key architect of our ill-fated financialized economy. Rubin’s protege include Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, NEC Director Larry Summers, Michael Froman, Jason Furman and Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Brill. Furman, OMB Director Peter Orszag and Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs-designate Lael Brainard were all closely associated with Rubin’s think tank, the Hamilton Project, housed at the Brookings Institute.
But Goldman’s influence in the White House is not limited to the Rubin network. In addition to Hormats, at least five Goldman alumni hold high-level positions in the administration. Mark Patterson, whose appointment as Chief of Staff at Treasury highlighted Obama’s willingness to make arbitrary exceptions to his new ethics policies, was Goldman’s chief D.C. lobbyist. Diana Farrell, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, worked at Goldman for several years in the late 1980s. Philip Murphy, recently nominated to be ambassador to Germany, spent 23 years at Goldman, rising to the position of senior director.
More than nine months into the new administration, two Bush holdovers with Goldman ties have managed to hold on to influential positions at Treasury. Former Goldman VP Neel Kashkari, Henry Paulson’s ballyhooed choice to hand out TARP funds, continues to administer the program as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability.
One of the more alarming of the Goldman-turned-regulators is Karthik Ramanathan, who traded derivatives in Goldman’s London and New York offices prior to this appointment as Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets by Bush. He now serves in the same role as an interim capacity.
This is great article about Goldman Sachs:
“If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.”
Independent
A:~)
August 6th, 2010 at 9:31 am
They are bought & paid for,he owns them,he is trying to own us
August 8th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Why did all of Wall St give more money to Obama than McCain? Why did all the car dealerships that didn’t give money to Obama get closed down? Why do the drug companies, which are a major part of skyrocketing medical costs, get a promise of no price controls once they signed on with Obamacare? Why is Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, who protected Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from reform all these years, get left in charge of the finance committees and crooks like Geithener and Bernanke still running the fed and treasury when they helped create this mess? Why did GE’s Jeffrey Imelt get a seat on the NY Fed after supporting Uhbama? Why did some firms that were Goldman Sachs competitors get allowed to fail? Why did the White House approve the bonus payouts when they did the bailout and then only pretended outrage when the bonuses became public? Too bad there weren’t more news agencies out there besides Fox that dared ask an unscripted question.