Looking back, the British Empire seems a dreadful contrivance to us now. A bunch of white people dictating how people from races as diverse as the Americans and the Solomon Islanders should live. Totally ridiculous.
Today, Goldman Sachs is the same creature, the natural heir of Cecil Rhodes, of Jardine Matheson and the East India Company. A virtual monopoly built on extreme force and power with no sense of fairness, just the smell of money above all else.
Its obscene behaviour and the total obliviousness of its 'working for god' CEO shows how this institution is the absolute cancer at the core of our society. This company does not make anything. It does not make money per se. It simply spins things faster and faster until it is the only company that understands what is going around - and then it takes a huge cut.
Take its whiz kids and give them three nut shells and a pea on Oxford Street. That's their world.
And don't believe that the money doesn't come from shareholders (or pension holders), employees and even fat cat managers. It does. They apparently employ the best and brightest, but the most morally bankrupt.
Does this have any relevance to this blog ? Well, not really, but all business needs a market that is efficient. Goldman Sachs are amongst the worst players that aim to distort open markets to their own benefits.
Most companies have been proud of working with Goldmans, now it is a mark of shame...