The Great American Bubble Machine

[Prester Jim]

The following is interesting. Wonder if people think it conspiracy theory or is there something in it?

In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on "the Wall Street Bubble Mafia" — investment bank Goldman Sachs. The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi's piece is "an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories" and a spokesman adding, "We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good." Taibbi shot back: "Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it." Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi's piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.

The Great American Bubble Machine : Rolling Stone

[cactusflower]

Boom and slump comes out of the inherent conflicts in capitalist economies. Finance Corporations do their best to make money at all times. They make a lot less in slumps. There's no conspiracy, just a disfunctional system used by greedy people.

[Gimpanzee]

Read that earlier in the week. Good entertaining article but it overstretches itself regarding Goldman Sachs. Big holes in the case it makes. Points to its role in the great depression, then skips 65 years forward, to the dot com boom when it says that Goldman changed its philosophy. The implication was that for the 65 years in between Goldman was a reputable cautious bank focusing on long-term sustainable growth, then suddenly turned into the bubble machine. But that contradicts the narrative so it is just ignored and the last 15 years plus a few years in the thirties become the full story. That's not to say that they don't have undue influence in the US.