Aristocrats tax peasants: Top 1% at it again

Goldman Sachs: Your tax dollars, their big profits

The structure of our modern democracy is currently at risk and this economic panic has succeeded in assisting the largest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the ruling elite in the history of human civilization. The $70 trillion dollars the U.S. Federal Reserve/Treasury (debt machine) have produced to bailout the financial services industry has been used by the elites to buy up all the depreciated assets that the middle class can no longer afford.

History could read that banks (aided by consumers and the federal government) made billions of dollars worth of loans to over-inflate the housing market. They made billions off of the interest and transaction fees and then sold the mortgages at a profit. The banks traded these on a "secret market" of OTC transactions in a game of musical chairs - betting on who'd get caught using derivatives. When they all got caught (Mar.-Sept. 2008), the American taxpayer was left with the gambling debts.

Now that we have bailed them out, they are using the liquidity and investment, that the taxpayers provided them, to make money by taking advantage of the distressed finances of the middle income households that makeup the primary spending power of the U.S. consumer economy. The U.S. taxpayer may end up making back $0.60-.80 on the dollar for our investment, while Goldman Sachs pulled in $3 billion in profit in 3 mos. and saw its stock value increase 150% since March 2009. Secondly, the inflationary pressure that will have to be worked through the system to absorb the trillions of dollars of liquidity poured in through new U.S. debt will be a drain on purchasing power for decades.

Goldman Sachs

The current and previous U.S. treasury secretaries are Goldman Sachs alumni, and Goldman Sachs is one of the largest political contributors to both parties ($994,795 to Obama, his #2 contributor). The lines between the government and the banks have blurred, and this poses and issue for the U.S. taxpayer because the government needs the banks to be profitable to earn the billions invested back over the coming decades, however the banks become profitable through interest and fees that are essentially a tax on citizens. Also, the most profitable parts of banks are the ones that citizens want to regulate most. Right now it seems that the Goldman Sachs lobby is winning over the finances and futures of the American taxpayers. Our democracy is in jeopardy if the interest of business takes precedence over the interests of constituents. ~GK