Matt Taibbi vs. Goldman Sachs consultant on NPR’s “On Point”

Give yourself forty-five minutes and listen to last night’s broadcast of NPR’s “On Point.” Seriously. You’re not going to believe the analogy Goldman Sachs consultant Charles “Charlie” Ellis comes up with to explain away the anger directed at Goldman. It’s truly astounding. Taibbi slices and dices nicely (well, actually, not so nicely). Favorite quote (from host Tom Ashbrook): “Goldman Sachs is smarter than my furniture, though.”

MORE: Direct download here if you want to listen to it on an MP3 player.

UPDATE: StrangeAppar8us nutshelled Ellis’ argument perfectly in the comments…

Shorter Ellis: “Guns don’t kill people. People who carelessly walk into bullets kill people.”

Posted by Kevin K. on 07/22/09 at 07:35 AM • Permalink

Categories: News • Politics • Barack Obama • BushCo •

Share this post:

Let me see if I’ve got this right:

1. Goldman Sachs is a rake. The rest of us are Sideshow Bob. Rakes aren’t evil.

2. This isn’t about institutionalized financial malfeasance destroying lives and nations. It’s about anger management, and learning to love ourselves.

3. Investment bankers are just naughty children who got sick because lazy Regulators let them eat too much chocolate.

4. Really big numbers are incomprehensible, and should be ignored.

5. Even rich felons get sad when they’re no longer rich. It would break your heart to see one. Imagine Gordon Gekko wearing Crocs and driving his Ford Focus to a swap-meet.

Yeah, works for me.