Arnold Kling has a nice rant on what Goldman should be saying to the Congress:
It must have been tempting to say, "Look. You can't make a market by bending over backwards giving buyers every reason not to buy and sellers every reason not to sell. Sophisticated investors understand how we operate. Just like everybody who goes to play blackjack understands that some of the cards are dealt face down. You can complain that you think all the cards should be face up, but that would totally change the game. Do you hold to such high standards in your election campaigns? Do you think your disclosure of the consequences of your votes is honest? Do you disclose how lobbyists told you to vote? Do you go out of the way in your campaigns to give people all the possible reasons not to vote for you? You want to tell me about my responsibility to my clients? How would you like to hear my opinion about your responsibility to your constituents?"
What bothers me the most about all of this is that you never hear someone say this when they testify before Congress. Why is that? Is it that telling off a Senator while testifying is a crime? Or is it that if you tell them off, they'll cut off some potential source of funding? Or is it just that it's bad press? If it's the last one, then that's fine. It says something about the high regard American's hold for the government, which is troubling. But I really worry that it's some combination of the first two.
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