{"id":146,"date":"2009-10-17T02:17:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-17T10:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=146"},"modified":"2009-10-17T02:17:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-17T10:17:00","slug":"how-goldman-sachs-made-3-4-billion-in-3-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2009\/10\/17\/how-goldman-sachs-made-3-4-billion-in-3-months\/","title":{"rendered":"How Goldman Sachs Made $3.4 Billion in 3 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something is rotten in the state of America, and Obama needs to fix it.  Mark commented here that, when the subject turns to finance, people\u2019s eyes roll back and their brains go dead.  I\u2019m asking you to spend around fifteen minutes reading this and watching two videos.  You will come away with a much better understanding.  If you at all like me, you will come away angry.<\/p>\n

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Even as the economy continues to struggle, much of Wall Street is minting money<\/strong> \u2014 and looking forward again to hefty bonuses. <\/span>
Many Americans wonder how this can possibly be. How can some banks be prospering so soon after a financial collapse, even as legions of people worry about losing their jobs and their homes?<\/span>
It may come as a surprise that one of the most powerful forces driving the resurgence on Wall Street is not the banks but Washington. Many of the steps that policy makers took last year to stabilize the financial system \u2014 reducing interest rates to near zero, bolstering big banks with taxpayer money, guaranteeing billions of dollars of financial institutions\u2019 debts \u2014 helped set the stage for this new era of Wall Street wealth. <\/span>
Titans like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are making fortunes in hot areas like trading stocks and bonds, rather than in the ho-hum business of lending people money<\/strong>. They also are profiting by taking risks that weaker rivals are unable or unwilling to shoulder \u2014 a benefit of less competition after the failure of some investment firms last year\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>>
How could this be?  Didn\u2019t Congress pass TARP for the government to purchase toxic assets and thereby allow banks to lend money?  Dylan Rattigan explains how we got from there to here in terms even a child could understand.<\/p>\n