A Very American Company

Oligarchy: Political regime in which sovereignty belongs to a small group of people, to a limited and privileged class. The word regained popularity for defining Cossack Capitalism which had had its hands on Russia for the past several years. But deep down, aren’t Vladimir Putin’s friends inspired by the American model?

The investigation of Goldman Sachs we’re publishing today (pages 18-19) invites you to think about it. In effect, it sheds light on the very tight, almost incestuous, connections that unite the most powerful bank in the world with the political echelons of the leading world power.

Thus, the Secretary of the Treasury is none other than the ex-CEO of Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson. His principal collaborators are, for the most part, from “GS”, starting with Neel Kashkari, who is responsible for the gigantic bank rescue plan put into place a month ago to contain the financial crisis. And the list is long, from the president of the board of directors of the Fed, the central American bank, to that of the World Bank.

Certainly, these connections among blood relations between Wall Street and Washington, between the bank and the circles of power, are as old as American capitalism. And of course if ex-employees of Goldman Sachs are so often chosen to occupy these neuralgic positions, it’s simply, they plead, that they are the best – monk-soldiers of yesterday’s finance, for today’s public service.

It doesn’t stop. Even in the United States, and not only among envious rivals, this omnipresence of ex “GS” employees arouses concern. With good reason. How else do you explain that the bank, at the heart of the crazy speculation of the last few years, got out of the game so easily in the current turmoil? How do you dispel the suspicion of conflict of interests, since it is, more than ever, both judge and party? Let’s add that an eventual accession of Barack Obama to the White House will probably not change many things: the principal names cited to succeed Mr. Paulson in the Treasurey are, one would have understood, those of Goldman Sachs bankers!