Greg Palast: Goldman Sachs and Occupy Wall Street's bank: the real story

[marmar]

from the Guardian UK:



Goldman Sachs and Occupy Wall Street's bank: the real story
When Goldman got huffy at a credit union honouring OWS and pulled its anniversary dinner funding, much more was at stake

Greg Palast
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 27 October 2011


Mega-bank Goldman Sachs (assets $933bn), has declared war on one of the smallest banks in New York (assets $30m), the customer-owned community bank that happens to also be the banker for Friends of Liberty Plaza, Inc, also known as Occupy Wall Street. And you thought Goldman didn't care.

The trouble began three weeks ago when the occupiers suddenly found their donation buckets filling with thousands of dollars, way more than needed for their pizza dinners. Suddenly, the anti-bank protesters needed a bank. Citibank and Chase certainly wouldn't fit. So OWS opened an account at the not-for-profit Lower East Side Peoples Federal Credit Union. Peoples has a unique federal charter – designated to open accounts for low-income folk from all over NewYork, available to those families earning less than $38,000 per year. (Disclosure: the CEO of the Peoples bank is my dearly beloved ex. But that's another story.)

Goldman Sachs had also joined up with the Peoples bank. Goldman partners reportedly earn a bit more than $38k per annum, yet Goldman's association so far was limited to giving the credit union $5,000 toward the little bank's 25th anniversary celebration dinner. Goldman's largesse was acknowledged on the dinner invites – along with the night's honoree: Occupy Wall Street.

When a Goldman exec saw its gilded name next to Occupy Wall Street, the financial giant expressed much displeasure. In fact, my sources say, Goldman threatened legal action unless the credit union gave up the $5,000 and reprinted the invite sans the Sachs moniker. Goldman Sachs did not respond to our requests for comment on the affair. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/27/goldman-sachs-occupy-wall-street

[Skittles]

1. these rich bastards are soooooo easily threatened

BRING IT ON

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Gee, I wonder who his sources are.?

"(Disclosure: the CEO of the Peoples bank is my dearly beloved ex. But that's another story.)"

edited for spelling.

[Old and In the Way]

3. "Goldman partners reportedly earn a bit more than $38k per annum"

I think they earn a bit more than that.

[Rex]

4. GFS is a corrupt hole in the ground...should have let them die off.

Horrible company...another would have stepped up to take its place. Should have let that evil fucker die on the vine!

[redqueen]

6. Yes, they should never have received any bailout money.

What a tragic joke this system is.

[Rex]

7. There should have never been any bailout...that is not how capitalism works.

But some here would like to believe it does!

[redqueen]

5. Excellent stuff.

In 2008, the US Treasury handed Goldman Sachs a check for $10bn from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (Tarp), the bailout funds given to desperate commercial banks. A few eyebrows were raised: Goldman was not desperate, and it certainly was not a commercial bank. Yet – abracadabra! – Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson transformed investment bank Goldman into a commercial bank overnight. (Paulson's prior post was chairman of Goldman Sachs. Just saying.)

But there was a catch: Goldman would have to return a chunk of the public's billions in the form of loans for low-income customers and members of its "community", as required by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977. Problem: Goldman has, it seems, no low-income customers, nor a "community". Goldman was directed to find poor people and a community and hand over some cash.

(snip)

Peoples' Chairwoman Deyarina Del Rio tells me that Peoples sees itself in agreement and alliance with the protesters' demands to radically shift the American finance system away from profit-first to people-first banking. But not with our money, seems to be Goldman's attitude. But of course, it's not Goldman's money but our money – effectively, the tax payer dollars that were supposed to come back in the form of loans in return for the Tarp bailout.

(snip)

Peoples' Del Rio dismisses such threats, but I don't. These Community Reinvestment funds ultimately come from public pockets, so why should the titans of Wall Street be allowed to bully community credit unions, which are answerable to their members, not Goldman's partners?

[BrendaBrick]

8. kicking

Hope Palast keeps unearthing more!

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. Meh... it's a fair cop.

Hillary Clinton once spoke at the opening of a church community center that happened to host a bunch of radical progressive groups. Shortly thereafter the church was pressured to evict said groups...