But Will It Keep Working This Way?

In which Greg Smith, (now former) Goldman Sachs executive director, offers a master class on how to compose a letter of resignation.
Everything Dies
By William Rivers Pitt / March 16, 2012

Call me a convert, but I'm beginning to dig this whole let-the-marketplace-work-it-out capitalism thing. You know, actual market capitalism and stuff? It's pretty awesome when you make it work its magic.

First of all, and since Rush Limbaugh has been all the buzz of late, let's be clear on a couple of important points:

1. Those who categorize advertiser-aimed activism against Limbaugh and his orgiastic festival of woman-hatred as attacks on "Free Speech" need to remember that free speech equals the First Amendment. That Amendment can only be attacked by the government, which is why it's called an "Amendment." You know, to the Constitution and stuff, right? When ordinary citizens go after an obnoxious diaper-rash of a radio personality like Limbaugh, that's nothing more or less than people exercising their right to free speech, too.

2. Going after advertisers of an offensive public figure is the equivalent of using money as speech. As the current ultra-conservative Supreme Court has seen fit to re-establish money as speech, by way of their Citizens United decision, that means those who attack Limbaugh through his sponsors are following the black-letter spirit of conservative law.

So, yeah, sorry about that.

In other news along the same happy lines, a high-ranking Goldman Sachs bot saw fit to flee his chosen profession like a firework across the sky. The manner of his departure was comprehensively enjoyed by the Occupy movement, and of course Mr. Smith was fully trashed for his candor.

Even so:

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. saw $2.15 billion of its market value wiped out after an employee assailed Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein's management and the firm's treatment of clients, sparking debate across Wall Street.

The shares dropped 3.4 percent in New York trading yesterday, the third-biggest decline in the 81-company Standard & Poor's 500 Financials Index, after London-based Greg Smith made the accusations in a New York Times op-ed piece.

Smith, who also wrote that he was quitting after 12 years at the company, blamed Blankfein, 57, and President Gary D. Cohn, 51, for a "decline in the firm's moral fiber."

The power of the pen - a single op-ed - cost these brutes more than $2 billion in a single day.

That, right there, is how capitalism is supposed to work. Real capitalism is a process in which those who can't compete, and those who cheat, die.

Hm.

Sounds pretty good to me.

"Too Big To Fail" is someone else's catch-phrase. Not mine. I think the very idea is pure nonsense.

Nothing on the skin of this Earth is too big to fail.

Not even the fake-ass robber-baron shell game currently passing itself off as "capitalism."

Everything dies, sooner or later.

Everything.

#Occupy

Source / Truthout

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