[Welcome, C&L readers! -- lambert]

Charles Wilson, the President of General Motors once famously said during congressional hearings that, as Secretary of Defense, he would be able to make a decision adverse to the interests of GM but that such a situation was virtually inconceivable "because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa". For decades, Charles Wilson has stood alone as the Platonic ideal of corporate whores and douchebags who have no compunction about plundering the public and the Treasury to serve their corporate ends, because, well, hey if it's good for us, it's good for the America.

I doubt I could ever be mistaken for a "fan" of Lloyd Blankfein - If anyone ever put him out of our misery, I'd probably go piss on his grave - but it is hard to deny that this guy has a level of narcissism and grandiosity that is virtually unparalleled, even by Charles Wilson. Take this comment:

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"

Sarcasm? Hardly, this was an unintended - or perhaps fully intended - bit of honesty. In other words, fuck you all, I'm touched by god, and will do whatever the fuck I want - sort of a "family" of the financial world. Because of that, there is nothing surprising about this series of douchetastic calls that Blankfein made to various Goldman clients:

Lloyd Blankfein on Wednesday attacked the Securities & Exchange Commission’s fraud charges in telephone calls to ­clients as Goldman escalated its campaign to stem the damage to the bank’s reputation.

One person who received a call from the Goldman chief said he was told the regulator’s case against the bank was politically motivated and would ultimately “hurt America”

Goldman doesn't need to consider whether it's lost its way, or maybe went too far on this trade, it's unpossible! It was a Goldman-organized trade and that's all you need to know, and any attack on the trade is ipso facto an unfair attack on Goldman and therefore an attack on America itself. I'm surprised he didn't call the SEC "traitors." These guys are so demented, so evil, so disconnected from the reality that they are bad for America - and the World - that there is simply no way to deal with them other than by taking away all their money, and throwing them in a pen.

And, that, would be good for America,

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