I'm guessing this was supposed to be one giant sentence? Anyway... 1. There is no evidence of market manipulation 2. AIG was just paying their deliverables with the bailout money 3. GS didnt want the TARP money, it was thrust on them..and it was paid back with interest 4. They havent given out record bonuses since 2007 Comp. Where are you getting your information?
Goldman practically admitted to market manipulation when a piece of their software was stolen. There is a lot to this and if your interested you should take the time to research it, but here is a small exert from something sent from GATA to the SEC. Lehman Brothers was one of Goldman Sachs main competitors, but was not given a bail out and were allowed to fail. But when AIG just happened to owe Goldman Sachs billions they were bailed out by Hank Paulson (former head of Goldman) and had a former Goldman Sachs board member (Edward Libby) put in as AIG's CEO. Then he put another Goldman banker in charge of distributing the 700 billion from TARP out. Not only that but Goldman went out of their way to change their status from an investment bank to a bank-holding company so that it would be allowed to get more TARP money. Ya sure Goldman didn't want that TARP money. The news of record bonuses at Goldman Sachs has been in ever news publication main stream and underground. Anyone that pays attention would know this fact and a simple google search of "Goldman Sachs record bonuses" could inform you well as to the fact that they are getting their biggest bonuses in their 140 year history.
First and foremost, quoting a bunch of conspiracy theories does not make your crap magically turn into fact. All you do is read the headlines. Do you dig into these "facts" at all? Do you research? Lets take the easiest one to debunk, the bonus size allegations. This is 100% bull****. Goldman started their 360 review process in July and it runs through Sept. In addition, comp is paid in January. The comp numbers are calculated AFTER Q4 numbers are calculated. Yeah, GS has had a amazing first half, but there's no guarantee that the next half will be as profitable. If the Rockets go 30-11 in the first half of the regular season, do you go ahead and pay the players their playoff shares for the Finals? Those writers took a number of money put aside for comp, multiplied it by 4, and SPECULATED record bonuses. Bonuses wont be calculated into everyone's final annual p+l are in the books. And unless Paulson managed to steal a flux capacitor for GS, I'm pretty sure Lloyd B and company are not writing out fat checks to everyone right now. In your last sentence you used the word FACT twice when in FACT its all guesswork by writers who are trying to profit off the fact that the media needs to make someone the bad guy now that Bush, Cheney, etc have been cast into the abyss where they belong.
All the other points that you decided to ignore are fact and it doesn't take a conspiracy nut to see that 1+1=2. Yes it is true that Goldman has not yet paid out the bonuses, but you seem like a smart guy. You can't be gullible enough to think that the 11.4 billion dollars that Goldman set aside for bonuses will not be paid out. I'm not really into internet arguments so I'm just gonna leave you with this speech about Goldman. Yes Beck is a kook most times, but everything he states in the first video is true. The second video contains Dr. Ron Paul speaking about the audit the FED bill being blocked by people in both parties. The third video is a nice layman's explanation of why the FED will do everything it can to not let the audit the FED bill pass. <object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/l51Ow1MeNWY&rel=0&border=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/l51Ow1MeNWY&rel=0&border=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="349"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1bsACESBMFE&rel=0&border=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1bsACESBMFE&rel=0&border=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="349"></embed></object> <div><iframe height="339" width="425" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/32124060#32124060" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>null</div>
I'm not quite sure why ordinary guys like we have on the bbs are so eager to think that goldman Sachs makes their money in some sort of clearly honest way just because they are smart traders just like the bbs guys hope to be in their 40(k)'s. Why do they have the belief that having all the Goldman guys investing millions into key elections and constantly revolving through the treasury, federal reserve and the regulatory agencies has nothing to do with any thing. It seems sort of like a belief in Santa Claus for adults or the belief that the United States is alway the best and most generous country in the world.
It is their job to make money. That by itself is not evil. The evil part is manipulating the system to get to that goal, and the fact that our politicians let them.