Taibbi: Guess Who's Getting Rich Off The Cap-and-Trade Bill? Our Good Friends at Goldman Sachs!
By Susie Madrak Saturday Jun 27, 2009 10:00amI wish I'd been paying closer attention to this, because now I have a whole lot of questions that weren't there before I read Matt Taibbi's latest story for Rolling Stone: "How Goldman Sachs took over Washington by engineering every major market manipulation since the Great Depression."
But first, the "good" news:
WASHINGTON -- Landmark legislation to curb U.S. greenhouse gas emissions was approved by the House of Representatives in a close vote late Friday, securing a hard-fought victory for a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's agenda.
After months of negotiations, the Democratic-controlled House has narrowly passed sweeping legislation calling for the nation's first-ever limits on pollution linked to global warming. Stephen Power explains the bill's implications.
The 1,200 page bill—formally known as the "American Clean Energy and Security Act"—will reach into almost every corner of the U.S. economy. By putting a price on emissions of common gases, such as carbon dioxide, the bill would affect the way electricity is generated, how homes and offices are designed, how foreign trade is conducted and how much Americans pay to drive or to heat their homes.
Talking about how very deeply Goldman Sachs is embedded in the investors that will profit from cap-and-trade, Taibbi says:
Well, you might say, who cares? If cap-and-trade succeeds, won't we all be saved from the catastrophe of global warming? Maybe - but cap-and-trade, as envisioned by Goldman, is really just a carbon tax so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and-trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private tax-collection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it's even collected.
"If it's going to be a tax, I would prefer that Washington set the tax and collect it," says Michael Masters, the hedge-fund director who spoke out against oil-futures speculation. "But we're saying that Wall Street can set the tax, and Wall Street can collect the tax. That's the last thing in the world I want. It's just asinine."
Cap-and-trade is going to happen. [Ed. note - this was published yesterday.] Or, if it doesn't, something like it will. The moral is the same for all the other bubbles that Goldman helped create, from 1929 to 2009. In almost every case, the very same bank that behaved recklessly for years, weighing down the system with toxic loans and predatory debt, and accomplishing nothing but massive bonuses for a few bosses, has been rewarded with mountains of virtually free money and government guarantees - while the actual victims in this mess, ordinary taxpayers, are the ones paying for it.
It's not always easy to accept the reality of what we now routinely allow these people to get away with; there's a kind of collective denial that kicks in when a country goes through what America has gone through lately, when a people lose as much prestige and status as we have in the past few years. You can't really register the fact that you're no longer a citizen of a thriving first-world democracy, that you're no longer above getting robbed in broad daylight, because like an amputee, you still sort of feel things that are no longer there.
But this is it. This is the world we live in now. And in this world, some of us have to play by the rules, while others get a note from the principal excusing them from homework until the end of time, plus 10 billion free dollars in a paper bag to buy lunch. It's a gangster state, running on gangster economics, and even prices can't be trusted anymore; there are hidden taxes in every buck you pay. And maybe we can't stop it, but we should at least know where it's all going.
RS hasn't put it online but really, I strongly recommend buying the issue to support this kind of journalism.
You can read some comments on the piece here, here and here.
Oh, and you can read a related Taibbi piece here.
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Government Sachs puts it well.
I will say that Taibbi falls a bit short in considering the proximity of peak oil.
The entire political leadership falls short in describing our dire circumstances of the converging catastrophes of climate change and peak energy.
We have peak homo sapiens.
Read David Goodstein - - - Out of Gas
He is a scientist and as such does not project the personality one would need in political leadership, scientists are like that. His science is solid and his discussion is most informative.
An interview with him can be found here
James Howard Kunstler, not a trained scientist, gives a better talk stylistically in the The Long Emergency, an interview here (with a rather inept interviewer).
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What is for certain is, that whatever is wrong with the House bill, and there is plenty, the Senate bill will be FAR, far worse.
Sent the Taibbi article to a scientifically oriented friend who replied with the same sentiment. Peak oil is number 7 with a long description of how and why.
The oil market is anything but sleepy and saying supply will 'eventually dry up' fails completely to understand peak oil. He gives the numbers but fails to see the obvious.
Demand is exceeding supply. That means volatility, and lots of it. The Fat Cats will exploit it to their own advantage as best they can.
He cites the U.S. Energy Information Administration, he should study them more thoroughly. Peak oil is here and this is will increase turmoil in everything.
TomDispatch
here
now we'll be getting a new tax because the "climate changes"..........why am I not surprised?? It's just a new excuse to rob the people of what little they now don't have.......I've never believed Al BORE in the first place..........have you seen the pics of his "mansion"? Obviously he isn't concerned....but he IS concerned about all that wealth that will be flowing his way...and of all his cronies as well......and of course congress fell for it..........as usual..........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
"Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, who is intimately involved with the planning of cap-and-trade, started up a company called Generation Investment Management with three former bigwigs from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, David Blood, Mark Ferguson and Peter Harris. Their business? Investing in carbon offsets. There's also a $500 million Green Growth Fund set up by a Goldmanite to invest in green-tech ... the list goes on and on. Goldman is ahead of the headlines again, just waiting for someone to make it rain in the right spot. "
This is right-wing crap, it's already been addressed and refuted.
link???
At a Senate hearing earlier this year, or maybe it was the House, some Republican made an allusion to Gore and his "company". Gore had a perfect answer, in essence saying that in fact there is money to be made off of "green technology", and that his consortium is doing so....but that all profits will be recycled back into the green field via investments.
In other words, Al Gore ain't out to make millions, not even thousands, off of his name. Of course, Republicans who attack him falsely for this would be applauding anyone else who actually did it (if they were a Republican).
Rule of Thumb: Suspend Disbelief of anything negative that Republicans toss out about Gore.
I would like to see a comprehensive refutation of these accusations, if there is one, first to put my own questions to rest, and then to show others.
In typical fashion, the righties relate unrelated things to discredit both...here they accuse Gore of being profit-motive oriented only, and thus climate change is bunk. We know the latter's for real, but that doesn't mean Gore isn't motivated either by greed, or by another, less-often mentioned motive, piling up money even if it goes into a non-profit.
It would be better if he weren't driven by this, but the guy's a wealthy political animal who is involved in investment banking and although I was 100% behind his Presidential candidacy (duh) I have rarely seen a glimpse of real emotion in the man, and therein lie my suspicions.
So please do post links.
This thing might pass.
Lots of bribery money in it.
The only reason to have a smart-grid is to control a distributed energy system, which is precisely the opposite of what they want.
Blew my mind....full article at 'Corrente'
"In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled-dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates."....
.....and Obama puts these clowns in charge.....
......I think "these clowns" put Obama seemingly "in charge".!!!!!
u got me
Same.gov
"Suck on Our Yachts": Goldman Sachs Issues Non-Apology for Destroying the World Economy
By Matt Taibbi
Taibi is blogging at True/Slant.
.
The legislation also would let companies avoid cutting their own emissions by purchasing "offsets" -- activities such as protecting rainforests in Brazil -- that are deemed climate-friendly.
....So, a coal plant can buy a thousand acres of rainforest, and if they don't cut it down they can increase their coal production...er POLLUTION!
Protecting the rainforests... Good luck. Protecting the rainforests with policy? Guns? Paramilitary?
There are thirty recognized sustainable species of tree that we can utilize to offset the destruction. We can also encourage conservation of farmland and educate ranchers on methods that don't destroy the soil, like replanting in diverse ways. Mono-cropping in the production-forests and fields contributes to a lot of problems.
Off-sets sound are funny from anyone in a suit. Anyone with a "green job" will attest.
I wish I'd have craeted an account long ago. As a longtime viewer of C&L, I've been greatly disturbed by the lack of coverage on this subject. As a provocateurs of excellent debates, it's crazy that this has slipped past the radar. In fact, the reason I registered was primarily for this conversation.
So yeah, this bill has nothing to do with conservation and sustainability!
As I've said before, focusing on carbon in the green movement is like viewing interest rates as the primary problem within the derivatives market.
We make adjustments later. Probably have to anyway. Give those good 'ol boys on wall street a second chance. If they start screwing it up it'll give us reason to shove another big fat regulation up their arse. You can always count on their greedy behavior to give us a the more socially responsible country that we want.
For every regulation, there is a loop-hole. For every bureaucrat, there is a favored company. For ever and ever.
We are in charge now. Even so, we have no choice. Things must break before people listen. Republicans have all but destroyed the nations economy and put us into unprecedented massive debt to the communists for Christ’s sake! We know we will catch those greedy jackasses cheating before the world collapses. Close loopholes with adjustments, add a regulation, prosecute a suit, and, steadily squeeze them into compliance.
Actually its genius.
milk those "regulations"
We are going to cage you in them.
Dennis Kucinich just posted an article on OpEdNews about why he voted against this bill and I understand why he did - too many kickbacks at taxpayer expense and it lets coal companies skate away instead of phasing them out.
He can spearhead the changes we need to make in the future, but right now, we gotta bill that is going to start changing things.
what
where
when
who
why.......are you so confused
We gotta bill + 300 pages of our stuff you repubs don't like.
The bill will become law. The law can be adjusted.
No confusion.
But you are a pathetic blue dawg "dem" I suppose!?
No I am a Liberal and very proud of it.
That's it baby...get angry! Who's yer daddy?
have to go to senate? The party of "NO" still can stop it can't they?
Right?
Even if the GOPers get 9 dinos to go along with them. They fall short. Coleman being out right now will work against them. Then there's the VP in a tie breaker.
It'll pass.
We win. Its all about winning in the first two years before midterms. Then more House seats!
We will get more seats in the House. Looks like we might get a Senate seat or two as well..
Gots ta get rid of some of the Blue Dogs and Dinos. This will be an interesting election coming up.
or go home!
Please read the entire article...have a swell day
I'm commenting on the Bill not the article.
Haha.
But Any progress is still progress. Yes we need more.
But this is still a step in the right direction.
baby steps....then giant leaps.
Thats just the way it is there.
Nothing happens fast in DC. except when the US wants to invade a country. But who's fault was that?
Rome wasn't built in a day. We CANNOT be a majority and lose legislative battles. We must cram it up their arses even if bills appear incomplete. We will take our hits for sure, and, we should express our concerns, but Obama is our President and how long have we waited in pain for this? The repubs didn't attack their dumbo, even when he was obviously a stupid idiot. We need to put that faith into our for real, educated President. Its way to early to turn on him.
Is a whole lot of frustration.
After boosh and all the bullshit he brought down on us, people wanted change. And they want it now. I understand that. I want change now too.
With this last election and the promise of change was all the people needed to hear.
So they followed and voted for Obama.
I really didn't expect much change in the immediate future. Once Obama got in office, and learned all of the details that were being kept from the public by the Cheney Admin. Well, I think Obama had a reality check. He's learning . I don't expect him to keep all of his campaign promises in the 1st year. As much as I want that to happen, it's not realistic.
But I do expect him to eventually fulfill those promises.
candidates. He knows why he was picked. He knows what he needs to do. Unfortunately, there is a big kink in the works right now. A little gift the repubs left us, a destroyed economy and massive debt. So the President is going to have to be particularly intelligent to get through this mine field laid by republicans. One thing is for sure, he will not succeed at anything if we don't give a degree of (forgive me here) blind faith.
The repubs have put such a poison pill into effect that the alternative is unthinkable.
Mine was Edwards then HRC.
I said in the primaries that HRC and Obama were two peas in a pod. I believe that belief has proven it's self true.
The dividing line will be with health care. HRC would have pushed for something closer to single payer than what is currently being discussed. But we'll see how this all plays out.
I'm glad edwards got found out. What he did to his wife was dispicable.
I never want to hear from that guy again. He threw out all trust.
I also said I would support who ever got the nomination. I'm still doing that.
As for the poison pill? I think it's far worse than that.
They poisoned the whole water supply.
You're welcome.:)
So if you disagree, you're a Republican? Bullshit. It's fine that Obama is looking at climate change, but it would be nice if there were a bill that's not as corporate friendly. I'm sick of Democrats being the junior Chamber Of Commerce instead of looking out for the working man/woman like they used to. Let Republicans stay as the party of big biz.
Kucinich can afford to vote "no" because it's not his butt on the line over passage of the Bill. It's Pelosi, Hoyer and Obama mainly.
Meaning that any real "phase out"of the coal industry would cost too many votes in the current House, not to mention being an absolute non-strarter in the Senate.
Not unlike the "phase out health insurance companies"...it's the best way to go but won't happen any time soon for essentially the same reason.
Friends of the Earth Goes it Alone: Urges 'No' on Climate Bill
"Corporate polluters including Shell and Duke Energy helped write this bill, and the result is that we're left with legislation that fails to come anywhere close to solving the climate crisis," Blackwelder wrote.
"Worse, the bill eliminates preexisting EPA authority to address global warming-that means it's actually a step backward.
"This exercise in politics as usual is a wholly unacceptable response to one of the greatest challenges of our time, and it endangers the welfare of current and future generations. ... If the ‘political reality' at present cannot accommodate stronger legislation, their first task must be to expand what is politically possible-not to pass a counterproductive bill."
Republican efforts against any progress at all.
Go ahead, spin it baby.....I dare ya.
was posted ......"Worse, the bill eliminates preexisting EPA authority to address global warming-that means it's actually a step backward."
We have a BILL which will become LAW which can be adjusted later. Why do you think the repubs are complaining about the 300 pages added in at 3am in the morning? It ain't because the EPA changes thats for SURE. That part they love.
It's alright man. Just sit back and watch. This is not clunky conservative politics with an idiot in the White House. This is something new.
After healthcare....lobby reform. Scared yet?
that the reform/s will be bush-like "reforms".....like the 'clean skies iniative', 'no child left behind', 'healthy forests'....and others that sound like reforms, BUT do nothing!
They never could reform anything anyway. Besides those were unfunded mandates, typical republican political trickery. This bill, come law, will be funded.
Just not for our side.
after all this time that no one asked what the "trade" part of cap and trade actually meant? Of course there is going to be a market. There is nothing at all in the legislation that requires that market be conducted by Wall Street in general or Goldman-Sachs in particular. Carbon generating industries will be free to trade directly amongst themselves.
But one thing that is bothering me is the use of coal.
Coal provides 7% of our energy needs in this country.
It's time to eliminate the use of coal once and for all.
In the Appalachian mountains(sound familiar?)they are blasting the tops of mountains off with tons of high explosives.
I wonder what kind of eco systems are getting wiped out?
And that's before the rains fill all of the rivers with the runoff.
I understand that is far short of what is needed. But it is a step in the right direction. What we need is more legislation pushing for even more stricter regulations. And harsher penalties for those who won't comply.
Now, lets get this new technology started. Now is the time to push for this. Some will want Nuclear energy. Not me.
Damn, use the Bully Pulpit already.
Energy Information Administration (EIA) on world coal use
here
The US produces almost 50% of its electricity with coal. The EIA again
here
I stand corrected.
I was listing to KRXA this morning while I was running errands.
I was listing to a conversation that stated the above percentages.
Either I heard them wrong, or they were wrong.
Either way, I'll take your word and proof. Thanks for the correction.
You are welcome!
I think that it will behoove us all to learn many of these numbers carefully and thoroughly.
The number I am learning is my own personal Kilo Watt hours per month. It was 285 KWhr last month. I doubt that is relatively much.
Still I have been at 9 - 10 KWhr a day. My great grandfather lived his life at zero!
In two or three generations we may be back to zero. Except the planet Earth will be very much less hospitable.
Carbon Kids Blog here
We love our gadgets but they use lots of juice, here
I should say that I am rather suspicious of the EIAs' tendency towards the rosy scenario.
Their extreme case is oil at $200 a barrel in 2030.
We could have that later this summer.
Turmoil is what is on the agenda.
Lots of it.
health reform fails.
is closer to the mark. Shutting down the coal industry overnight is not an option unless complete de-industrialization were a goal. Since you've taken the only other reliable large scale technology off the table (nuclear) I'm keen to hear how you propose to accomplish this goal. One other point of interest, if coal were to be banned worldwide overnight the consequences vis-a-vis global warming would be to make the problem immediately and dramatically worse. (Aerosols mitigate global warming and they disappear before the CO2 does). Then, of course, there is the political side of the equation. Your willingness to shut down the major industry of several states in unlikely to be sympathetically received in those states. Normally I'm right in tune with your ideas Mudshark but this one not so much.
Granted, I haven't thoroughly read it yet. There are some good things about it. Subtitle B
Sections 114,115,116,786 and 812 seem to be a step in the right direction.
I'll go with some kind of filtering/trapping toxic gasses from coal fired energy plants. For the time being. But destroying the eco systems will not work in the long run. Even if they do re establish the environment.
As far as Nuclear power. Who would want one close to their homes?
I understand that there has been advancements in Nuclear safety technology. But I'm still cynical/pessimistic about their safety.
Then there's the waste byproduct. What do we do with that?
Even when they recycle it, there is still a waste/byproduct.
I don't believe that this country can't find a way to overcome this energy situation.
Oh, and thank you PeterG.
I've never seen the "benefit" of cap'n trade beyond the benefit to the usual moneychangers. Seems to me the best way to stop pollution is to force people and industry to stop polluting. Am I oversimplifying somewhere, I can't seem to find where I am?
Of course allowing the rich to pay to pollute seems to fit right in with the last 8 years of reverse lassez faire regulation. "Yeah, we're gonna buy some rainforest and then act very surprised when we later are told by '60 Minutes' investigators that the forest was cut down by rogue lumberjacks..."
Sweet...
Take off those pathetic "party" glasses, and actually think about this corporate favoured garbage being passed, will you just once? For once, can you actually THINK about what is being passed instead of favouring it because it is Dem? Want to know how it works? I will tell you. Ask any Canadian and they will tell you. It's called Bullshit. A polluting company buys credits from other companies that don't pollute. Done. What the hell does that do to stop pollution? NOTHING!!!!! It's the biggest piece of crap, Canada ever signed on to. And now those patriotic "liberal progressive" Dems (sarcasm on purpose) are jumping on the same line of BS and people are supporting it? If this was a Republican bill, you same people would be screaming about it. But of course, it helps that green saviour Al Gore will make umpteen millions off it. His heart is after all, in the right place. Good Lawrd. No wonder Bush was Prez twice.
Yeah, you are in charge now.
My God it feels so good outside with all this fake global warming going on. I mean shit it is July 4th and 63 degrees outside here in NC.
Bush ruined the country?
I agree he sure helped a hellofa lot and should be in prison, but Dems have had the majority in congress since 2006, what the hell were you people doing for the last 2 1/2 years? Passing shit and helping ruin the whole damn country like Bush was, that's what. And if you say they wasn't, I sure didn't see them fighting anything or wanting to change anything from the corrupt and treasnous shit we've got going on now. Yeah, Bush did bad but Obama has laid out 3 times as many trillions as Bush did, now how are we going to pay for it guys? We aren't, the country cannot paossibly pay back $99 trillion in debt and unfunded mandates. You would think the Cap & Trade bill money might go to pay down some national debt, but no 85% of the money will line the pockets of special interest and global corporations, we get stuck with the bill as usual. If you can take pride in that then your one hell of a dumb ass.
You loyal Party people really don't get it.
It is both parties that have sold us out and have stolen our kids futures. Both parties are complicit in ruining this once fine country.
How old are you people around here? Sounds like your freaking 12 years old or something. Hell, the high school dropouts of my days are smarter than the college grads these days. Americans are suckers, believe anything put out by the mind stream media complex that has taken over our schools as well. I was just looking at some college courses and it was amazing to see what courses they have, totally irrelevant to anything linked to learning and holding down a real profession. America is the land of SUCKERS and the world laughs out loud when they hear the BS we're being told. Research Spain and see how they're "GREEN JOBS" program killed more jobs than it created while making everything else worse. Do some unbiased research, stop being a SUCKER for everything you hear and read from the talking heads at school and on TV. You can do it.
If you have lived long enough in one place, you can go outside year after year and realize, the climate is not getting hotter. It isn't that hard to do. Of course the powers that be would rather you move all around the country or maybe even to another country to go to school, get a job and naturally if you do that then you'll think things could be different because your in a different climate. But if you actually live in the same town for 40 years, you know this is all Bullshit and nothing but a way to intrude into how I live my life.
By the way I just had an estimate to get my house totally solar dependent because I was just curios to see what it would cost me.
2,000 square foot house, the estimates were $50,000 to 100,000 dollars which if you take the 50K estimate, add in financing because no body has 50K laying around, and then deduct the 50% rebates from the state and the federal government still makes the price almost $35K. It would take me paying 30 years of paying $200 a month (which is the same as my power bill) to pay it off. In 30 years surely there will be a much better solution and I'll be stuck with 52 large solar panels on my home, who is going to want to buy my house then? I guess I'll have to pay another 4 or 5 thousand to get them removed and buy the newer technology then aye?
Besides Obama has caved in on using America only products, so the $1,000 solar panels will be made in China for $50 bucks as well as everything else that is supposedly going to power us up. You know we can't work for .70 cents an hour here yet. And to think that Americans are going to get all these green jobs is pure dreamery, illegals and they're imported families will be getting these jobs for $10 an hour after Obama passes immigration reform if he does, hopefully he won't be able to. And where is everyone going to get the money to renovate everything with these very expensive green products? Oh, I forgot the reccession is over now.
This is pure idiocy, There is plenty of oil and there is more than plenty of coal that can be converted into oil. It's called natures resources and we should be able to retrieve them and use them. As a matter of fact, if the resource is on federal land, retrieve it, sell it and send all Americans a check from the profit, don't lease it out for 10K a year and let some corporation make 2 or 300 million dollars on it, it is America's land, we deserve something besides paying for every damn thing over and over and over!
Well While I'm here what about Sarah Palin? Ah, if you were going to leave because of controversy and harassment, then it might be better to just leave quietly unless you want the media, the same media that has harassed you, to dig deeper and find out who has been harassing you and therefore uncover themselves, which makes no freaking sense.
So just leave quietly and do your thing. Yeah, I've got a feeling she is being swooned by the global elite to suck the republicans in again because alot of them "think" she is the real deal. The truth is, if your not down with the global elites, you won't get air time, plain and simple. I'll bet you if she runs for big time office she will wind up being just like John McCain about most stuff, a liberal in republican clothing, and it will be business as usual. Bottom line is, in order to get nation wide media coverage YOU MUST BE APPROVED BY THE GLOBAL ELITES which run the government behind the curtian.
I'll talk to you later, I'm going to a TEA PARTY over in Raleigh, to protest this irresponsible government. Have a happy 4th and wake the hell up!
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