- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is investing at least $5 billion in Goldman Sachs, with warrants to invest another $5 billion in Goldman’s common stock.
- Goldman also said late Tuesday it would raise another $2.5 billion in its own public stock offering.
- Hank Paulson, a former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs, wants $700 billion from the American public to bail out some financial institutions – who, what, when, where and how are unknown. Why? Because.
- Buffett also supports Paulson’s bailout plan.
Something smells fishy, right? Well, we haven’t got half the story, which is why the stench will get bigger. Half a fish is half as smelly. Howard Rodman has the whole fish:
- Goldman Sachs gives Hank Paulson seven hundred million dollars (that’s seven zero zero comma zero zero zero comma zero zero zero) in salary and bonuses.
- Goldman Sachs lends Hank Paulson to the Treasury (now that he can afford to be a public servant).
- As the Secretary of the Treasury, Paulson insists that we give Goldman Sachs a lot of money, in exchange for a lot of crap. (If not, we all die.)
- Except it’s not Hank Paulson’s money, it’s ours.
- If the crap turns out to be crap, we’re stuck with it. (And by the way: if it’s not crap, why are they so desperate to unload it?)
- In four months, Paulson returns to Goldman Sachs.
- Paulson receives salary and bonuses from the money we just gave to Paulson to give to Goldman Sachs to give to Paulson.
- It’s our money. Or was. But we don’t get preferred shares. We don’t get a ten percent dividend. We don’t even get a free copy of The Warren Buffet Way: Second Edition (Paperback). We get crap.
AH – Now, it all makes sense! Thank you, Mr. Rodman! Screw you, Mr. Paulson!
This is an extraordinary story indeed. Goldman Sachs has produced all the CEOs of Merrill Lynch, NYSE, Treasury, etc.
I love how Rodman titled his piece – “Keith Richards, Cockroaches, and the Firm of Goldman Sachs” – as that’s all that will be left when dust clears from WWIII.
I’m turning into a Conspiracy Theorist with capital letters, Allan.
Fanatic? Lunatic would be more accurate.
Amazing how many conspiracy theorists there are on the internet.
The beauty of being a conspiracy theorist is that you don’t need to present any proof of your thesis…you just need to attract followers. “If there are others who share my views, my views must be correct, right?”
Retards…
Thank you for your concise, polite, and intelligent response!
Hey idiots,
This is not conspiracy. These are the facts. Whether Paulson actually returns to GS is immaterial. His prior extreme financial gain and connections there make him completely innapropriate to make these decisions.
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