I tuned into Bloomberg on the telly the other night and watched Senator John McCain and Senator John Levin grilling Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs over the fraud scandal, growls Mrs. M. The Senate inquiry was tough and brooking no nonsense, but Blankfein and his fellow Goldman/Harvard intellects chose to pretend they couldn't understand the charges or a word of what McCain or Levin were saying.  Blankfein's face was a picture of innocent confusion.

This type of dissembling may work with your wife, "Oh, darling, I just don't understand what you mean."  But it doesn't convince the wily senator from Arizona, who stated very convincingly that his fellow Arizonians, who are out of work and have lost their homes, can't understand what Wall Street billionaires are doing with all that money.  "Just what do you guys do with all those billions?"

His best accusation was that even though Wall Street had brought the world economy to its knees, the financial sector is now making billions.  Ordinary Americans, like workers and investors the world over, have suffered economic losses, hardship, loss of peace of mind and their faith in the financial community.  Only a year or two after tax payers bailed bankers out, it's business as usual.  The only sector to actually profit from the economic down turn is Wall Street, and it was their fault in the first place.  

I'm not normally a fan of McCain's, but he was hard hitting and cut to the core. Blankfein's pretence may have followed the Goldman PR line, but it didn't convince the rank and file Americans who are ready to dine on Goldman's entrails.  As one economist said after the Senate hearing, "What Goldman did may not be illegal, but that doesn't make it right. It's wrong, wrong, wrong."  Actually, Gordon Brown's description of Goldman as "morally bankrupt" pretty well says it all. 

Goldman is the biggest winner of the crunch.  Except for John Paulson, who has made £20bn since 2006 betting against the market.  And he bet against the "products" that he and Goldman sold as "synthetic CDOs".  This is the case that the SEC is prosecuting.  As Senator Levin said about what Goldman and Paulson were doing, "It's like designing a car out of broken parts.  You know the car will fail, but you sell it to a customer. All the while you are betting behind customers' backs that it will fail."

I'm waiting to see if the SEC will go for Paulson next.  It's outrageous that anyone can make £20bn while causing the whole world to suffers losses?  For some reason John Paulson hasn't been charged, maybe he will yet.  Let's hope so!

Even though Blankfein pretended not to understand Levin's analogy, the rest of us understood all too well.  Blankfein may resign, and the Goldman golden image is well and truly tarnished, and rightfully so.  But will the Vampire Squid strike back?  They're really a betting shop, not a bank.