Global Economy

The Wolves are at it again! Goldman Sachs Prey on America’s Social Security

Timothy Alexander Guzman, Silent Crow News – In a CBS interview on November 19th 2012 with Goldman Sachs CEO and Chairman Lloyd Blankfein recently said that retirees who are expecting entitlements such as social security will not receive any payments because the US government cannot afford them. The American people should be prepared for what President Obama and his Goldman Sachs backers are ready to do, and that is to confiscate social security.  A program started by President Franklyn D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression was a “Social Insurance” fund set up for the welfare of the people who were vulnerable to the fragile American economy. The poor, sick and unemployed were guaranteed resources such as food, housing and medical assistance through a mandatory payroll tax to fund the program. But Blankfein claims that all of the money you put in to the system will not allow you to receive your social security because it “wasn’t devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career”? The US government had been automatically deducting a payroll tax from every working person in America since the program was founded with a promise that it will be there when they retire. Working people were systematically taxed for the Social Security program by law, but now they will not get any entitlement because the government cannot afford it according to Blankfein. Here is the excerpt from the interview between CBS news correspondent Scott Pelley and Lloyd Blankfein:

BLANKFEIN: You’re going to have to undoubtedly do something to lower people’s expectations — the entitlements and what people think that they’re going to get, because it’s not going to — they’re not going to get it.

PELLEY: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?

BLANKFEIN: You can look at history of these things, and Social Security wasn’t devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career. … So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised. But in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained.

PELLEY: Because we can’t afford them going forward?

BLANKFEIN: Because we can’t afford them.

If you don’t think Goldman Sachs is ready to take your Social Security and pay out their yearly bonuses to themselves and their employees with your hard earned cash, think again. Goldman Sachs contributed $1 million to President Obama’s campaign in 2008 then contributed to Governor Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012. However, Goldman Sachs still donated to Obama’s campaign although it was a much smaller amount compared to Romney. Do you remember who also received more than $10 billion in preferred stock investments from the U.S. Treasury in 2008 through a program called TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) under President George W. Bush? It was Goldman Sachs. The US government’s Secretary of the Treasury and a former CEO of Goldman Sachs Henry “Hank” Paulson decided to purchase assets and equity from major financial institutions so that the financial sector can regain its strength after the emergence of the Subprime Mortgage Crises. As soon as Tarp was signed into law, Goldman Sachs decided to pay bonuses of up to $1 million for more than 900 employees. Blankfein and his top executives at the firm decided not to pay themselves bonuses “because they think it’s the right thing to do” according to Goldman Sachs spokesperson Lucas Van Praag.

Just to give you an idea on who managed Goldman Sachs in the last couple of decades. First and foremost, it is the one of the major investment banks that has a long list of former executives and employees who went to work for the U.S. Government in a “Revolving Door” policy, meaning that those who worked for Goldman Sachs or other powerful banking institutions such as JP Morgan Chase would land an influential position within the U.S. Government. Part of this cozy arrangement in the last decade or so was then Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, a former Goldman Sachs executive for more than 26 years. Then after 1999, Robert Rubin’s protege Lawrence H. Summers became Secretary of the Treasury, both men were trusted advisors to President Bill Clinton. Clinton passed the Gramm-Leach-Blily Act of 1999 which dismantled key provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which prohibited commercial banks from collaborating with full-service brokerage firms or participating in any investment banking activities. It separated the gamblers of investment banking and the conservative commercial banks that were regulated and entrusted with the life savings of the American people.  The Gramm-Leach-Blily Act allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms, and insurance companies to consolidate all financial operations that would benefit Wall Street’s speculative markets. The Glass-Steagall’s Act provisions were formulated after the U.S. government responded to the Great Depression with the possibility of unorthodox financial practices consumers faced with a corrupt financial system that allowed major financial institutions to combine commercial banking with their financial operations. The Glass-Steagall Act protected depositors and prevented financial institutions from taking on risky bets with commercial bank funds that belonged to its customers.  In other words Commercial banks could not participate in any investment opportunity concerning investment banking and insurance institutions that were willing to use money that was deposited in their banks by their customers.

Then there was Henry “Hank” Paulson under George W. Bush who was behind the TARP program. Paulson’s influence allowed a $700 billion tax-payer funded bailout of banks instead of purchasing mortgage-backed securities that were in essence “Bad Mortgages” from troubled lenders. Adding insult to injury, companies that contributed to political campaigns in 2008 received over $295 billion in TARP funds according to Reuters in 2009. Then there was Jon “I simply do not know where the money is” Corzine, former Governor of New Jersey, U.S. Senator and former CEO of MF Global who allegedly used customer money to cover the company’s bad bets right before declaring bankruptcy in 2011.

Goldman Sachs wants your Social Security and they can get it. Why? because they collaborate with Washington on all financial matters that concern the public.  For CBS news to ask Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs about the future of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and what should be done is like asking the Big Bad Wolf if he thinks he should eat Little Red Riding Hood when she brings her basket of food to her sick grandmother after the fact he already ate her Grandmother while waiting for Little Red Riding Hood to arrive.

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