Comments on: Blankfein Invokes God and Man

By: » Blankfein Invokes God and Man

» Blankfein Invokes God and Man — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:47:59 +0000

[...] Blankfein Invokes God and Man [...]

By: medialurt

medialurt — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:54:02 +0000

Of course Palin has nothing substantial to say. Career politicians have NO political convictions. Their most efficient skill is the ability to field questions with affected alacrity. They are all certainly whores and I suspect they are also sociopaths. Their main purpose is to get elected, stay in office, and line their pockets and those of their pimps. If their egos don’t require constant microphones and cameras, they comfortably mutate into bag men, or as they prefer to be called, lobbyists.

By: vivhatahway

vivhatahway — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:59:56 +0000

So he’s supposed to leave a paying gig writing something of substance to entertain you by commenting on old news?!

Good luck with the deadline, Mr. Taibbi. As funny as your anger is, I enjoy your well-researched articles far more.

Lastly, for the love of sanity, please don’t write about Palin’s book unless your editor forces you, and in which case, I will mail him/her a dead fish (moose are problematic).

By: johnpaulpagano

johnpaulpagano — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:16:19 +0000

I was referring to the invention of “modern capitalism”, by which I meant large-scale capitalism abstracted and promoted through the medium of big finance, of which Goldman is a contemporaneous example. The precursor of this is the frenzy of incorporation (cf. the Dutch East India Company) to exploit the riches and resources uncovered by extended exploration (cf. Sir Walter Raleigh), which reached its zenith in England during the Elizabethan era, not in Italy during the trecento. A cultural precondition of that was Calvin’s spiritual redemption of riches, if not the greed or ostentation we normally associate with Wall Street.

By: Short Notes: Day and Age (and My Radio Show Appearance)

Short Notes: Day and Age (and My Radio Show Appearance) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:26:36 +0000

[...] of Rolling Stone fame discusses how Goldman Sachs’ representative Brian Griffiths’ misappropriated JESUS CHRIST to deliver the company message of greed and globalization. [...]

By: gypsysister

gypsysister — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:28:00 +0000

I have to disagree with you. The seeds of capitalism were sown during the trecento, maybe even earlier, and the roots took hold during the Renaissance.

With western europe rebounding from the ravages of the plague, travels abroad (especially to the east) and translation of writings from Greco-Roman era and Islamic societies, there were many innovations in philosophy, math, science, and basic technology. The continent was ripe for class mobility fueled by trade of goods, ideas, and other resources. Religion was certainly a part of the culture, and the Gutenberg Bible (printed on a machine inspired by innovations in china) certainly helped changed the social landscape of the church, but the protestant movements can’t be credited with the invention of capitalism. Calvinists might have been happy to jump on the bandwagon and contribute, but that’s s much as I can give them.

By: Thomas Daulton

Thomas Daulton — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:07:24 +0000

Also: funny, that, since usury is prohibited in the Bible. Oooohhhhhh yeeeaaahhhhh, at some point us humans decided that "usury" actually meant "charging too much interest". Originally, usury meant charging any interest, and it was a sin. Because charging interest meant making money off of Time, and only God owned Time.

By: Thomas Daulton

Thomas Daulton — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:00:19 +0000

…”If you want to know how God feels about money, take a look at who She gives it to”

–Anne Lamott

By: johnpaulpagano

johnpaulpagano — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:49:06 +0000

Griffiths and Blankfein aren’t talking as crazily as you seem to think. You may disagree with it, but this is the Calvinist spiritual view of money, later adopted by the Puritans and others, which created modern capitalism. We associate Goldman et al with ostentation, and that was reviled by Calvin and his predecessor Luther, but generating wealth as a fulfillment of God’s purposes is the “Protestant ethic” to which Max Weber referred, and from which big finance eventually emerged.

By: annemarie

annemarie — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:28:48 +0000

This may start a flame war, but one of the ways Taibbi’s writing is far superior to Thompson(a trite comparison to start with) is that you don’t need to wade through 100 paragraphs cataloging drug/alcohol consumption to get to one of substantial insight. I don’t care what substances you need, Matt, thanks for leaving it out of your writing.