My two bit addition to the diatribe on Goldman Sachs so ably launched by Matt Taibbi

By now the whole of USA and perhaps most of the developed world knows and maybe accepts in some if not full measure, the infamy of the loathsome Goldman Sachs (GS) as the 'giant vampire squid' of the financial world.

So when I came across this ill-timed, uninformed and irrelevant tribute to GS supposedly as part of a organizational principles and virtues primer:
http://sabhlokcity.com/2011/10/some-serious-food-for-thought-the-14-principle-of-goldman-sachs/

I could not  resist providing some strong rejoinders, which I am reproducing below. As it happened with my earlier exchanges with this incorrigible  shifter of stances who confuses facts and opinion, the exchange was uneven and rough.

My first rejoinder:

Very few can quarrel with the 14 principles that have been outlined above. The only and big problem is with the choice of the role model as Goldman Sachs!!! (GS)  of  all the people and corporates in the developed world?!!!!. 

 I don't know what FTI thinks or knows about GS. Currently many in US agree that it is veritably the "Gaint Vampire Squid" of the finance world. 

It is one of the titans of  the 'Capitalist Casino' world of the US and the West. It undertakes what can be fairly described as 'Casino Banking' which is more popularly  known by its glorified term of 'Investment Banking'

 Most of its income comes not from SERVING customers, but from taking/placing highly levered bets on anything and everything under the sun from its prop. trading desks and systems.

Its huge exposure to and 'partying' in the huge and monstrous Derivatives market of close to $ 50-60 Trillion present a very real threat to the global financial and economic ecosystem.  So it is a puzzle how these 14 principles 'underpin' its work. Nice term! to use. But there is very little factual basis to such high sounding phrases being applicable to GS. 

What is not probably included in the links below is that GS also holds the distinction of advising the Greek Govt. to cheat their way into the Euro club by masking their fiscal books and figures using 'Interest Rate Swaps' and 'Currency Swaps'. It of course got huge fees for pulling the wool over the eyes of  Euro zone  Inspectors and regulators

If possible do go  thru these links below. There is lot more of dirty linen about GS that is being washed and re-washed in the internet. This is just a sampler

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-59.htm  (SEC charging GS with Mortgage fraud)


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/16/goldman-sachs-fraud-expla_n_540938.html#s81812&title=Goldman_Creates_A ( Explanation of the GS Mortgage Fraud)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/17/germany-vs-goldman-sachs-_n_541707.html ( German Govt chasing GS for CDO/CDS fraud charges)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/17/goldman-sachs-gave-more-m_n_541606.html (GS bribing and greasing of US politicians and poll campaigns)

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405 (Matt Taibi's detailed and thorough exposition of GS manipulation of most post-depression era asset and financial bubbles)

No offence meant. I just love being a 'devil advocate'

Now let us look at the silly response  below of this apologist  who has no qualms about his ignorance of  the general economic current affairs or the unsuitability of his illustrations.

Sanjeev Sabhlok says:

October 10, 2011 at 12:40 pm

This is not a discussion re: Goldman Sachs of which I know little and have no time or interest in investigating. Should its manipulations be found to be illegal the relevant guilty parties should be prosecuted. That’s the purpose of capitalism – to ensure justice and accountability.

The principles, though, are robust and valid.

It however does not stop with this. Very eager to parade his half-baked economic theories in everything, SS goes on to make some ridiculous tall claims about capitalism and its purpose. One thought that systems and structures and not economic systems ensured justice, but apparently not according to the genius of SS. And who is going to hold GS accountable for its manipulations and prosecute it, the pathetic SS!!, whose ridiculousness and monumental delusion puts even Don Quixote to shame

This surely had to meet with another response below:

While I agree that you were not discussing GS in your article, yet still why quote the example of GS of which by your own admission you know very little.  Why not somebody else? My suspicion is that there are very few white knights in shining armor in the Corporate domains of the US that can do the work of restoring faltering faith of millions in the justice of current capitalist systems. I would love have some such examples. GS just happens to be a shot in the dark from you. 

My point was  not about principles per se , but the fact that individuals and organizations do not act and deliver on their own mission statements is itself a matter of grave concern. If you peruse typical Organization mission statements, you may distil not just 14 but  140 principles.  But of what use is the validity and robustness of principles when they are more observed in their violation than and in compliance like GS does with impunity.

If the purpose of Capitalism is to ensure justice and accountability, why is it failing in ensuring that very thing in the Mecca of Capitalism (USA)? The masses of the US are painfully aware of this failure. 

You said "Should its manipulations be found to be illegal the relevant guilty parties should be prosecuted"

 In the wake of the Internet bubble bust in the early 2000's, GS was pursued by SEC for IPO norms violation, price manipulations, insider trading, and nstead of prosecution, let off lightly with a settlement of 'chump change' of a few million $ when it made billions of  $ in profits from the Internet bubble manipulations. 

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. White collar crime is rampant in USA and is still continuing in broad daylight. The system has hardly brought any of these criminals to book. The capitalism in USA has miserably failed that test.