Sorry. Another story to get your blood pressure up! (But you can do something!)

Perhaps I've had my head in the sand not to have seen this story about Goldman Sachs' too-cozy relationship with the federal government and U.S. citizens' tax money!

Good grief! (Emboldening mine--JAH.)

As George Bush's last Treasury secretary, former Goldman CEO Henry Paulson was the architect of the bailout, a suspiciously self-serving plan to funnel trillions of Your Dollars to a handful of his old friends on Wall Street. Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury secretary, spent 26 years at Goldman before becoming chairman of Citigroup — which in turn got a $300 billion taxpayer bailout from Paulson. There's John Thain, the [expletive deleted] chief of Merrill Lynch who bought an $87,000 area rug for his office as his company was imploding; a former Goldman banker, Thain enjoyed a multibillion-dollar handout from Paulson, who used billions in taxpayer funds to help Bank of America rescue Thain's sorry company. And Robert Steel, the former Goldmanite head of Wachovia, scored himself and his fellow executives $225 million in golden-parachute payments as his bank was self-destructing. There's Joshua Bolten, Bush's chief of staff during the bailout, and Mark Patterson, the current Treasury chief of staff, who was a Goldman lobbyist just a year ago, and Ed Liddy, the former Goldman director whom Paulson put in charge of bailed-out insurance giant AIG, which forked over $13 billion to Goldman after Liddy came on board. The heads of the Canadian and Italian national banks are Goldman alums, as is the head of the World Bank, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, the last two heads of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — which, incidentally, is now in charge of overseeing Goldman. . . .

--Anyone see any potential conflicts-of-interest, here?

Oh! Oh! Oh!

But talking about conflicts-of-interest! . . .

Goldman's primary supervisor is now the New York Fed, whose chairman at the time of its announcement was Stephen Friedman, a former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs. Friedman was technically in violation of Federal Reserve policy by remaining on the board of Goldman even as he was supposedly regulating the bank; in order to rectify the problem, he applied for, and got, a conflict-of-interest waiver from the government. [!!!!!!] Friedman was also supposed to divest himself of his Goldman stock after Goldman became a bank-holding company, but thanks to the waiver, he was allowed to go out and buy 52,000 additional shares [of a company that he is supposed to be regulating! --We're not even talking potential conflicts-of-interest. This is, absolutely and completely, a full-blown conflict-of-interest. And the government approves!?!?!!!!--JAH] in his old bank, leaving him $3 million richer. [Only $3 million? --JAH] Friedman stepped down in May, but the man now in charge of supervising Goldman — New York Fed president William Dudley — is yet another former Goldmanite.

Yeah.

"No problems!"

And we are supposed to trust our government to be looking out for us?!?

Let's see how these guys' disinterested "public service" works out in practice:

Although he had already engineered a rescue of Bear Stearns a few months before and helped bail out quasi-private lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, [then-Treasury Secretary] Paulson elected to let Lehman Brothers — one of Goldman's last real competitors — collapse without intervention. ("Goldman's superhero status was left intact," says market analyst Eric Salzman, "and an investment-banking competitor, Lehman, goes away.") The very next day, Paulson greenlighted a massive, $85 billion bailout of AIG, which promptly turned around and repaid $13 billion it owed to Goldman. Thanks to the rescue effort, the bank ended up getting paid in full for its bad bets: By contrast, retired auto workers awaiting the Chrysler bailout will be lucky to receive 50 cents for every dollar they are owed.

Immediately after the AIG bailout, Paulson announced his federal bailout for the financial industry, a $700 billion plan called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and put a heretofore unknown 35-year-old Goldman banker named Neel Kashkari in charge of administering the funds [They couldn't find anyone else who might have better qualifications? --JAH]. In order to qualify for bailout monies, Goldman announced that it would convert from an investment bank to a bank-holding company, a move that allows it access not only to $10 billion in TARP funds, but to a whole galaxy of less conspicuous, publicly backed funding — most notably, lending from the discount window of the Federal Reserve. By the end of March, the Fed will have lent or guaranteed at least $8.7 trillion under a series of new bailout programs — and thanks to an obscure law allowing the Fed to block most congressional audits, both the amounts and the recipients of the monies remain almost entirely secret.

But this, what we have already seen, may be small change compared to what's coming:

Sorry. I'm not going to quote the end. You really have to read the last few paragraphs for yourself on the article owners' site.

The collective message of all of this — the AIG bailout, the swift approval for its bank-holding conversion, the TARP funds — is that when it comes to Goldman Sachs, there isn't a free market at all. The government might let other players on the market die, but it simply will not allow Goldman to fail under any circumstances. Its edge in the market has suddenly become an open declaration of supreme privilege. "In the past it was an implicit advantage," says Simon Johnson, an economics professor at MIT and former official at the International Monetary Fund, who compares the bailout to the crony capitalism he has seen in Third World countries. "Now it's more of an explicit advantage."

Ouch!

Time to audit the Federal Reserve! (Follow the link; there is a wonderful series of tools to help you contact your congressional representative and senators. --My Republican Representative is sponsoring the audit bill; neither of my state's Democratic senators has signed on, yet. [But I thought the Democrats were opposed to big business' and governmental corruption, while the Republicans were always pro-big business?! (????!!!!)]

I'm writing!

Help Ron Paul Audit the Federal Reserve . . .

I received the following email this afternoon from Campaign for Liberty. I thought it was worth passing along. . . .

March 12, 2009

Dear Friend of Liberty,

Right now, you and I are seeing the worst plundering of a nation’s wealth in the history of civilization – all led by the out of control Federal Reserve.

If you and I don’t act today, I’m afraid this crisis will end with the economic ruin of every man, woman and child in the United States.

Just think about the scope of the problem for a minute: The Fed pumps trillions of dollars in fiat currency into a system already overloaded by the massive amount of dollars committed to the economic bailouts in recent months.

This TOTALS:

More than the socialist New Deal...
More than the entire Iraq debacle...
More than the 1980’s savings and loan mess...
More than the Korean War...

COMBINED.

Where will it all end?

It’s time you and I put a stop to an out of control Federal Reserve. And Ron Paul has a bill before Congress to do just that.

That’s why it’s vital you fill out your personal "Audit the Fed" petition in support of Congressman Paul’s bill.

Today, $9.7 TRILLION in taxpayer dollars in bailouts and loans have been agreed to by Congress, the Bush and Obama Treasury Departments, and the Federal Reserve.

Poll after poll shows the American people are fed up and are ready for fresh leadership to make their voices heard in Washington.

That means it’s a perfect time to unleash the Ron Paul R3VOLUTION on the out of control Fed!

Please complete this petition urging your Congressman to cosponsor and seek a roll-call vote on Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed Bill -- the first step toward ENDING THE FEDERAL RESERVE once and for all!

As I know you’re aware, the Federal Reserve’s inner-workings are shrouded in secrecy, and their meetings are off-limits to the public.

Just recently, the Federal Reserve told Congress “NO WAY” when asked to account for TWO TRILLION DOLLARS in taxpayer-backed loans!

Well, why do you think they refused?

They know coming clean with Congress and the American people on how they doled out those two TRILLION dollars would result in an anti-Fed firestorm.

So can you imagine the impact of a full-scale audit?

You and I will finally be able to show the American people that the Federal Reserve System leads to:

*** Constant economic crises -- the housing crisis and the resulting chaos is just one example of an economic bubble created by centrally-planned interest rates and money manipulation;

*** The destruction of the middle class -- as fuel, food, housing, medical care and education costs soar, everyone who is NOT on the government dole is forced to make do with less as the value of their money slowly decreases;

*** Currency destruction -- history shows us that riots, violence and full-scale police states can result when people finally realize fiat money isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on and REFUSE to accept it.

And unless you and I do end the madness in Washington, D.C., we may be closer than we’d like to think to learning that history lesson first hand -- right here on the streets of our towns and cities.

That’s why your commitment to helping the Campaign for Liberty fight this battle is so vital.

Just a few months ago, there was no chance of passing any legislation like Ron Paul’s Audit-the-Fed Bill.

So I guess there has been one “CHANGE.”

But with the piling up of trillions of dollars in out of control “bailouts” of Wall Street and international bankers, even many politicians in Washington, D.C. want to show you they’re “being responsible”.

What better way for Congress to do this than by auditing the Federal Reserve to account for the trillions stolen from the U.S. taxpayers?

There will be many battles you and I must fight over the coming months to take back our country. But this one is set to rage in Congress in just a few short weeks.

And, it’s a bill we CAN pass!

You see, after regulating, taxing, spending, borrowing and printing us into what looks like the worst recession in decades, establishment politicians and power brokers are assuring us they are working hard to “fix” our economic woes.

So they want to do something (anything) to show you they care.

That’s why Dr. Paul’s bill is positioned to move forward this year.

And since very few politicians understand the Federal Reserve System, they do not understand the threat this bill poses to the borrow-and-spend system they continually vote for.

And even if Ron Paul’s Audit-the-Fed Bill is defeated, just forcing a vote is a win/win situation.

Can you imagine how many politicians will pay the price at the ballot box in 2010 when you and I tell the American people their Congressman somehow lost trillions of taxpayer dollars and voted against even looking for the money?

Of course, getting a vote won’t be easy, but you know just as well as I do that Ron Paul has proven he’s not afraid of a fight.

Now, we just need to show Congress that the American people demand action on Ron Paul’s Audit-the-Fed Bill. Here’s how we plan to do that:

First, we’re already busy contacting up to five million activists nationwide through mail, phones and e-mail to generate petitions to the U.S. Congress demanding action on the bill.

But that’s just the beginning.

We’ll work the talk radio stations and grant local media interviews to further turn up the pressure on Congress. And, of course, Ron Paul supporters will own the meet-up groups and social networking sites that first launched our R3volution.

And a few days before the vote, if we have the resources, we’d also like to run hard-hitting targeted radio, TV and newspaper ads.

This entire program is designed to send one, CLEAR message to Congress -- Any politician who votes against the Federal Reserve Audit should look for another job. . . .

Sincerely,

John F. Tate
President

P.S. Please fill out this petition DEMANDING your Congressman cosponsor and seek a roll-call vote on Ron Paul’s Audit-the-Fed Bill TODAY!

With Congress spending like never before, and TRILLIONS of new dollars flying off the printing presses, it’s never been more important to expose the Federal Reserve System to the American people once and for all.

--I have cut out some earnest pleas for financial contributions. Tate notes that "Campaign for Liberty operates like government should, meaning we will not go into debt. Only your voluntary contributions permit us to do this work." --But whether you are interested in or able to contribute financially, I thought the message was worth sharing . . . and the petition worth signing.