OMG! - Goldman Sachs CEO: "I'm Doing God's Work"

[Are_grits_groceries]

Lloyd Blankfein, 55, Goldman’s chairman and chief executive

<snip>
"We’re very important," he says, abandoning self-flagellation. "We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous cycle." To drive home his point, he makes a remarkably bold claim. "We have a social purpose."

Social purpose? Those who have lost their jobs or seen their pay slashed thanks to bankers who flogged dodgy mortgages and dreamt up investments so complex not even they understood them, would gladly tell him where to stick his social purpose.
<snip>
Even though he proudly pays himself more in a year than most of us could ever dream of — $68m in 2007 alone, a record for any Wall Street CEO, to add to the more than $500m of Goldman stock he owns — he insists he’s still "a blue-collar guy".
<snip>
So, it’s business as usual, then, regardless of whether it makes most people howl at the moon with rage? Goldman Sachs, this pillar of the free market, breeder of super-citizens, object of envy and awe will go on raking it in, getting richer than God? An impish grin spreads across Blankfein’s face. Call him a fat cat who mocks the public. Call him wicked. Call him what you will. He is, he says, just a banker "doing God’s work"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6907681.ece

He made $68m in 2007?????????????????????????
This is a very long article if you can stomach it. I don't think Gawd wants anything to do with him.

[AllentownJake]

1. Well when you think you are God

it is pretty easy to believe you are doing his work.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Mammon is a god, so I suppose he's right n/t

[Joanne98]

3. What an asshole!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. Nearly bankrupting the country is God's work

And remember that according to Bush, invading Iraq was the pursuing the will of God. Say Hallelujiah!

[indepat]

24. Yeah, Jesus, we had junior doing god's work and its handiwork of destruction

is all around us so, dear lord, please deliver us from all the do-gooders doing god's work. :P

[Joe Chi Minh]

39. Well, Attila the Hun was known as the Scourge of God. But then, his name became a

byword for cruelty and barbarism, and he made many, many people, homeless indigents.

[truedelphi]

43. looking over Geithner's Kissinger and IMF connections, we see why

Our "recovery" mode economy is not boosting up the average person, but only the inner circle.

[dana_b]

5. wonder how much of God's work he has done

with that $68m??

[Starry Messenger]

6. Yeah, this kind of blue-collar

The divine right of kings in the 21st century.

[Initech]

7. Well, when "In God We Trust" is printed on the dollar, does that count as "god's work"?

[The Magistrate]

8. Whom The Gods Would Destroy, Ma'am, They First Make Mad....

This fellow is absolutely barking.

[47of74]

9. Yo, Mr. Blankfein. James chapter 5.

Specifically this part.

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. (James 5:1-6)

[Jack Rabbit]

10. Rivised Commandments

Thou shalt steal.
Thou shalt take the name of thy God in vain.
Thou shalt covet everything that thou hast no right to possess.
Thou shalt bear false witness out of thy teeth.

[JVS]

11. Mammon worshipper!

[Mari333]

12. I read the whole thing

inethical, immoral, vapid little people arent they. I sometimes forget there are such people in the world, I try to surround myself with people who have integrity and decency, and than I read about these kind of vipers. The greed and cruelty is overwhelming. Gods work? no. unless their god is fear. The Inquisition was doing gods work too, they said.
the one solace I have is that they cannot take any of what they acquire with them.
and the words of my dad come back to me
"All the money in the world will not buy you an ounce of class. "

[Are_grits_groceries]

16. I do not understand people like him.

It is beyond me how they can be so arrogant and oblivious to their fellow human beings.

What does he need $68m a year for?

[Mari333]

21. Ive always wondered that myself

fear of death, is the answer, I think.

[Blue_Tires]

29. and his mindset is par for the course in Wall Street / CEO world...

not shocking at all...

not that it matters much, but i do hope these comments get more attention on our side of the drink...

[tblue]

17. Their 'god' is the Almighty Dollar. There's a special place in hell reserved fort his guy. nt

[alfredo]

13. I wonder if he is part of the "Family" like Ensign and Sanford. It sounds like

the kind of rationalization they use to excuse their misdeeds.


Read "The Family" by Jeff Sharlet.

[Feron]

22. My thoughts exactly. nt

[alfredo]

32. Do members of the family realize that they are "B" movie villains?

[bvar22]

26. Bingo...."The Family"

There are several "conservative Democrats" that are members of this group.
Very scary.

God gave the World to the Rich Elites to dominate.
Poor People do not matter. They aren't real.

[alfredo]

27. It meshes well with Leo Strauss' philosophy too.

Calvinist are spoiled brats.

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. Apparently Mr. Blankfein is unaware that God has more to say about financial "sins" in Scripture

than he does about adultery, murder or just about anything else (certainly more than homosexuality, just in case any Freeps are lurking)

And that's mostly Old Testament stuff, Lloyd.... just in case you were gonna use never reading the New Testament as an excuse. Though JC also made it clear how he felt about financial thievery (especially in His Dad's name) when he kicked some moneychanger ass at the Temple.

[tblue]

15. I've got two words for you, Blankfeind, and they're not 'Let's dance.'

[girl gone mad]

18. k&r. How are you, agg?

All better, I hope.

[Are_grits_groceries]

19. Yeah, thanks for asking.

I got home yesterday afternoon. I still loathe Rethugs so I wasn't injured too badly. I have a grade 3 shoulder separation, but I did that years ago too. As long as I can flip people off, I'm set.

[nc4bo]

20. And that damn bastard is a financial psychopath.

Now if he were a serial killer type of psychopath, he'd be serving life in prison or enjoy a well deserved lethal injection.

How many people have committed suicide or committed murder due to the direct (or indirect actions) of financial psychopaths like Mr. Blankfein?

I hope you burn in hell you piece of dog shit.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. Is that the same God who's always broke and needing a handout from believers?

In that case, he's got the perfect role-model.

[roody]

25. I am so happy to be an atheist!

[Brickbat]

28. SHAME!

"Blue-collar guy." FFS.

[mascarax]

30. Here's an interesting "interpretation" from a Goldman Sachs exec

trueslant.com/matttaibbi/

It's the 11/4/09 article, beginning quoted:

<<“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Goldman’s Griffiths said Oct. 20, his voice echoing around the gold-mosaic walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral, whose 365-feet-high dome towers over the City, London’s financial district. “We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”
- via Profit `Not Satanic,’ Barclays Says, After Goldman Invokes Jesus – Bloomberg.com.

I didn’t believe this story was true at first — thought it had to be a spoof. But it turns out to be true. The great banks of the world have gone on a p.r. counteroffensive in Europe, and are sending spokescrooks in shiny suits into churches to persuade the masses that Christ would have approved of the latest round of obscene bonuses.>>
>>

Taibbi ends with "What a bunch of assholes!", which I definitely cannot disagree with.

Shameless.

[Joe Chi Minh]

40. Was that what Jesus meant when he told the rich young man to sell everything

he had and give it to the poor?

Indeed, how does Griffiths square making a virtue of worldly self-interest with Jesus's parable of the widow's mite?

Or, "It is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle."

Or the Beatitude; "Blessed are the poor"? Or with Christ's words: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 16.25.

Why these instructions from Jesus to the Apostles, in Matthew 6:8: "and He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff-- no bread, no bag, no money in their belt-- ?

Christ's values and the precepts he taught were the opposite of this World's. Consequently, so contrary to Christ's teachings are Griffiths' words - effectively, mocking the scriptures - that they are as close to sacrilege as makes little difference.

[mascarax]

45. Uh, Mr. Griffiths didn't get to those parts yet?

Disgusting, isn't it?

Based on your post, I'd like to see you meet up with this guy or a similar "spokescrook" (trademark Taibbi, I guess).
I highly doubt Griffiths could counter with quotes...

And he said it in St. Paul's Cathedral!

Here's another appalling story: the recently shut down "Bank That God Built" in Minnesota - not sure I ever recovered from the picture of Jesus "closing the deal" with the businessmen.

Pic & article here:
http://minnesotaindependent.com/48014/the-bank-that-god-built-shuttered-by-state

WARNING: Picture is appalling.

[Joe Chi Minh]

46. SURELY, that is an Onion piece! It can't be on the level. It would make a

Norman Rockwell painting look like Guernica or a Hogarth tableau.

[Mari333]

31. k

[notesdev]

33. He said, as he

strapped on his belt of CDOs and yelled "Dollah Akbar"

[Liberal In Texas]

34. God's work pays 1.3 million a week or over $186 thou every day of the week

including Sunday. That's a lot of non-conforming mortgages. Less than one day of his salary would pay off my mortgage. I say tax the hell out of him and the other <1% of the population that make this obscene amount of money. That would be "social purpose".

[dickthegrouch]

35. Let him go do God's work in Heaven

Just like Oral Roberts had to
:sarcasm:

[earth mom]

36. What a TOTAL FUCKING A$$HOLE!!!

:puke:

[earthboundmisfit]

37. Put him on the street. (Not "The Street"). $5 in his pocket. No credit. No home. No car.

Or maybe $0 in his pocket. See how he feels then. That's where his "God's work" put a lot of other people. REAL people.

[Vidar]

38. The original Rockefeller said, "God gave me my money." Same repulssive sentiment.

[chill_wind]

41. Now, now people. He owns a President

and a Democratic Congress.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000085

Here at DU we can learn to love and rationalize and sanitize anything, including men like him.
He is, after all, on the right "team."

[ZombieHorde]

42. An economic crusade?

[nashville_brook]

44. "I'm a pirate. Period."

[justabob]

47. I wonder if his church got benefit of him tithing

Somehow I doubt he forked over 10% to God.

[kedrys]

48. This is what happens when you take that Ayn Rand shite seriously

That wealth creation crap? Smoke and mirrors. :nuke: