Smarter Than The Average Bear (Stearns)

A mere eighteen months ago, the Financial World was collapsing about our heads. We taxpayers ponied up hundreds of billions to prevent certain Financial Giants deemed "too big to fail" from doing just that. The alternative was "Another Great Depression", bread lines, Dust Bowls, the rise of fascism, and a return to starched collars and ties as corporate casual office wear. Well, we can't have that.

Not to worry, though. Its grantors claimed that the Great Bailout of 2008 was actually a loan from the government and those hundreds of billions will surely come back with interest. To which the American public replied, "As if."

Lo and behold (and just in time for the Christmas Bonus Season on Wall Street, coincidence?), those loans were repaid. In fact, Goldman Sachs and the remaining Financial Giants were making money hand over fist. (Sorry about that, Bear Stearns, Merill-Lynch, Wachovia and the rest of you guys who got acquired by the remaining Giants. Try to have your former CEO as Secretary of the Treasury when the next Financial Tsunami hits. Hank Poulsen made sure that Goldman was atop the "too big to fail list".)

But how did Goldman come up with those repayment billions so quickly? The World Economy is still in the crapper. It turns out that they had an ace in the hole. When Greece wanted to join the European Union, they went to Goldman to "cook their books" so that it appeared that they had a lot less debt than they actually did. Hey, Goldman convinced everyone that the sub-prime mortgage market would expand forever and look how well that turned out.

The EU admitted Greece and everything was hunky-dory until Goldman needed hundreds of billions quickly or Uncle Sam would send his knee cap - breakers to collect on those bail-out loans. So Goldman invested heavily on a Greek default, sold short on the Euro, and let the word out that maybe there are bigger problems in Athens than bad sour cream on the gyros. So what ifa few Greek pensioners go hungry. Goldman execs can collect their multi-million dollar bonuses without Congress bitching about unpaid loans.

In the words of Yogi Bear, Goldman is certainly "smarter than the average Bear (Stearns)." After all, Goldman is still here and Bear Stearns isn't. Still, it does seem that profiting from inside knowledge of what appears to be massive fraud is un-sporting if not illegal.