While JP Morgan Chase was fleecing the rubes in Jefferson County (Birmingham, AL), Goldman Sachs was fleecing the PIGS (Portugal, Greece, Ireland, and Spain) by selling government officials in those countries an investment (Invented by JP Morgan Chase — who else?) that was too good to be true. Thanks to JP Morgan Chase, Jefferson County (Birmingham, AL) is broke and faced with crushing public debt that is the equivalent of a Mob-loan. Ditto for the Goldman Sachs clients in the finance ministries of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. The suck , er, client pays only interest that compounds exponentially. The Mob calls it "vig" (Vigorish is underworld slang for exhorbitant interest on a loan.) and Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase (and their ilk) call it a "credit default swap." If there is a Hell, may all of the loan sharks with their vig" and Wall Street Masters of the Universe with their "credit default swaps" burn there forever. If this is a (fair & balanced) solution to predatory usury, so be it.
[x Salon]
"This Modern World — Goldman Sachs: What Does Our New Product Do? Who Knows?!"
By Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins)
[Dan Perkins is an editorial cartoonist better known by the pen name "Tom Tomorrow". His weekly comic strip, "This Modern World," which comments on current events from a strong liberal perspective, appears regularly in approximately 150 papers across the U.S., as well as on Salon and Working for Change. The strip debuted in 1990 in SF Weekly.
Perkins, a long time resident of Brooklyn, New York, currently lives in Connecticut. He received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism in both 1998 and 2002.
When he is not working on projects related to his comic strip, Perkins writes a daily political weblog, also entitled "This Modern World," which he began in December 2001.]
Copyright © 2010 Salon Media Group
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