Matt
Taibbi labeled Goldman Sachs “the Vampire Squid” because
of its financial power and its ability to manipulate and control whatever it
wants.
In this article, he points
out that Trump ridiculed his opponents for their connections to Goldman Sachs,
but is now turning the nation’s economy over to…veterans of Goldman Sachs. The
Vampire Squid is now a key player in Trump’s swamp.
“In
his final pitch to voters in the days before the election, Trump used the image
of [Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd] Blankfein in a TV ad to argue that insiders had
ruined the lives of ordinary Americans to enrich themselves. Here is the
narration you heard when Blankfein’s face came on screen:
“It’s
a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that
have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that
money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political
entities.”
“One
surprise election result and a mountain of jubilant #draintheswamp hashtags
later, Donald Trump has filled his White House with, you guessed it, Goldman
veterans.
“His
chief strategist, the unabashed white-supremacist loon Steve Bannon, is a
former Goldman banker, as is adviser Anthony Scaramucci. Steve Mnuchin marks
the fourth Goldman-pedigreed treasury secretary in the last four presidencies,
after Bob Rubin, Lawrence Summers and Hank Paulson.
“But
the real shocker is the recent appointment of Goldman Chief Operating Officer
Gary Cohn to the post of director of the National Economic Council. Bannon and
Mnuchin were former, past Goldmanites.
Cohn, meanwhile, is undoubtedly at least
the number-two figure at the world’s most despised bank, if not the outright
co-head with Blankfein. He has been at the center of many of its most infamous
episodes, including the Greek affair.
“So
much for draining the swamp.
“The
new party line, emanating both from Washington and from Alt-Right yahoos on the
Internet, is that people like Gary Cohn are no longer the swindling scum-lords
Trump said they were a few months ago, but simply smart businessmen.”
