The United States of Goldman Sachs

After Capital Research Center highlighted the incredible power that Goldman Sachs now wields and in the future will continue to wield in the U.S. government, today comes an article in the New York Times that says about the same thing in a more long-winded fashion.

The NYT article, “The Guys From ‘Government Sachs,’” by Julie Creswell and Ben White, provides a snapshot of the concerns that Goldman critics have:

They note that decisions that Mr. Paulson and other Goldman alumni make at Treasury directly affect the firm’s own fortunes. They also question why Goldman, which with other firms may have helped fuel the financial crisis through the use of exotic securities, has such a strong hand in trying to resolve the problem.

The very scale of the financial calamity and the historic government response to it have spawned a host of other questions about Goldman’s role.

Analysts wonder why Mr. Paulson hasn’t hired more individuals from other banks to limit the appearance that the Treasury Department has become a de facto Goldman division. Others ask whose interests Mr. Paulson and his coterie of former Goldman executives have in mind: those overseeing tottering financial services firms, or average homeowners squeezed by the crisis?

Still others question whether Goldman alumni leading the federal bailout have the breadth and depth of experience needed to tackle financial problems of such complexity — and whether Mr. Paulson has cast his net widely enough to ensure that innovative responses are pursued.

It’s good to know the New York Times has finally caught up to Capital Research Center.

This weekend I was on CBS Evening News after I wrote, “Goldman Sachs Government,” which ran in the American Spectator Thursday. My article expanded on Fred Lucas’s profile of Goldman Sachs that ran in the October 2008 issue of Foundation Watch.