BEYOND BONUSES: GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZES NEW OFFICE BUILDINGS FOR GOLDMAN

Written by Jim McGrath Tuesday, 22 December 2009 15:14

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Now we hear that beyond taxpayer-funded success and bonuses, the government is subsidizing Goldman Sachs's purchases of swanky new office buildings, in the form of tax breaks, job grants, and other subsidies.   According to one economics professor, quoted on Bloomberg News:

"It's just an unbelievably bad deal...We could hire any middle-tier guy or gal at Goldman, and they would tell us within 15 seconds that the deal we have made as a nation with Goldman is underpriced by many, many orders of magnitude and that we are insane."

The article exposes the details and notes the irony of how Goldman Sachs, really a giant hedge fund and investment channel for only the wealthy (where only millionaires can open accounts and a firm that services only the wealthiest investments for the wealthiest) is benefiting from such largesse now at a time when the incomes of all but the unaffluent are falling.

We must ask, what social value is there in providing such assistance? Does it really trickle down and make a difference to the average wage earner and the economy as a whole?  Do a few thousand purchasers of yachts and other luxury items support the economy with their wealth, or is it the other way around, where the needs of millions of unaffluent wage earners are the only real stimulus that can be relied on, as stimulus dolars or indeed, any other form of prosperity or uptick, like small business growth, funnel their way through the economy? 

We must ask, and marshall public opinion: as the banks continue on life support, sucking everything out of the economy, when will the government stop giving away the store to rich corporations that provide little except to the top five or so per cent?  Will greed and lobbyist dollars continue us down the path of ruin? 

For the entire article, see Bloomberg News at :  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aaLwI2SKYQJg&pos=10