Goldman's Eight Point "Socialism Manifesto"

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Paul B. Farrell

Aug 4, 2009, 12:01 a.m. EST

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By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Warning: Behavioral economics means one thing to Wall Street and Washington and something quite different to Main Street. It depends on whether you're the nudger or nudgee, the manipulator or the manipulated, the guys making lots of money or the folks being scammed.

Average folks erroneously believe behavioral economics helps them. But behavioral nudgers just want to help themselves.

The economic downturn has done little to curb government lobbying in Washington. The Wall Street Journal's Louise Radnofsky says too much has been at stake for lobbyists to tighten their spending.

And both political parties are guilty. Behavioral economics is all the rage since the new president hired some academic behaviorists. That also helped the GOP, made average folks forget the former president had his nudgers, too, like former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Moreover, his party recently hired 350 lobbyists, many former Senators and Congressmen, to kill the new guy's health-care reform.

The truth is, folks, behavioral economics, nudging, manipulation and lobbying, whatever you call it, has been a part of American politics for a long time under many names, though neither party publicly admits their nudging strategies.

Puzzled? Ask yourself: Why is the GOP so aggressively demonizing Obama's health-care reform as "socialism?" Why? Yes, something smells fishy, especially since the GOP created the biggest "socialized medicine" program ever with Medicare drugs.

Then suddenly the "why" hit me. Here's why ... All the fear-mongering about health-care "socialism" is actually a strategic smoke screen, a brilliant counterattack, a sneaky political cover-up of the GOP's recent historic takeover of America using taxpayer-funded bailout money against us. Get it? The Right's making Left turns into "socialism."

You heard me. In "Bailout Nation," hedge fund manager Barry Ritholtz summarizes this clandestine takeover of the great American democracy, led by Paulson and the Goldman Conspiracy juggernaut. In less than a year America has become "Socialism for the Rich! Capitalism for the Rest," says Ritholtz.

It all began last October, just before the elections. Paulson, Goldman's Trojan Horse inside a GOP-controlled White House, moved with the lightning speed of a special-ops team attacking behind enemy lines. Paulson took command of the meltdown, before our clueless Congress knew what happened.

Back then, the Goldman Conspiracy was near bankruptcy as the stock bubble crashed. But Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine: Rise of Disaster Capitalism," warned: "When those bubbles burst" Wall Street's "ideology becomes a hindrance and goes dormant while big government rides to the rescue." Klein then predicted: Free-market "ideology will come roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis."

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi also warned of an attack brewing in "The Big Takeover, how Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution."

Yes, that "revolution" took less than a year. Except we did not return to the old Reganomics capitalism Klein warned of. Instead, the Goldman Conspiracy created a new American "Socialist-Capitalism." As Ritholtz aptly describes it, America now has "socialization of risk" [with trillions of toxic bailout debt dumped on taxpayers] versus "privatization of profits" [for Wall Street insiders like the Goldman Conspiracy].

This is a historic government coup: The GOP created a new "American Socialism" that resembles Russia under Putin, with its bizarre blend of socialism plus just enough hint of capitalism to keep a steady flow of kickbacks to a corrupt dictator and his moneyed cronies.

At high levels the game reminds me of Bush looking deep into the Putin's eyes and getting "a sense of his soul" (the "soul" of a former KGB agent and communist enemy of America?) Just as Bush failed to see the true "soul" of Russia's boss, Congress and today's Main Street America cannot see the hidden "soul" of the new "American Socialism" being created by the Goldman Conspiracy, banks and their political pawns.

We've written often about the many sides of this takeover. We've also reviewed endless critiques in Harper's, Rolling Stone, New Yorker and others. Here are eight principles for a new "Socialist Manifesto" emerging out of our dying democracy, a profile of the new "American Socialism" that will rule your life ... till it self-destructs our way of life:

1. Hank Paulson jumped from Goldman Sachs CEO to U.S. Treasury Secretary, and when a golden opportunity presented itself proceeded to wipe out Goldman Sachs competitors Bear Stearns and Lehman, to force BoA to swallow a crippled Merrill Lynch, to save GS from billions in counterparty risk at Fannie, Freddie, and AIG, and to allow the Goldman Sachs group to control key positions at the U.S..."

- tomtaxpayer | 2:32am Today2:32am 8/4/09

Let's not kid ourselves about a couple of things: Home sales really have picked up in the last few months, bringing the very high level of houses on the market down to just regularly high.

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