Let’s talk about money a little more. It makes the world go ‘round. It’s the root of all evil. It talks. It is all that and more. It is what keeps the U.S. in a power position around the world, it is what motivates so much of our actions, it is what so many people base their lives on. Many of those people are living in New York City, and still many more of them are working at Goldman Sachs, the company that is feeling the heat from the government about how it marketed some of its subprime mortgage debt packages. In the end, they scammed people, but there’s no way the government or the courts are going to come out and say that. They are not going to point a finger at a company that has billions of dollars and say you are a liar and you scammed the American public. Just like they aren’t going to say that to BP. Just like they aren’t going to say it to anyone with enough money to make a dent if they walk away from supporting the government people who run for office.

So what is the answer when someone who has a lot of money does wrong and ends up with even more money because of it? You ask them to pay more money, of course. And that’s exactly what the government is doing. They have come to an agreement with Goldman Sachs where they are asking them to pay $550 million to settle the fraud charges. You know that’s just a fraction of what they made on the supposed fraud (real) that they perpetuated on the American public. They scammed money and then paid some of it (not nearly all of it) to the government to get off scott free.

Sure, the investors are rattled and whatnot, but who cares? They made the money. Even if the head of the company steps down, they are still going to be Goldman Sachs. It’s not like they, who even advised Greece on their finances (mean anything to you?) are going to disappear. It’s not the way this works. You pay some money, fire a few people, and continue on with business as usual.

In a rare case of actually acknowledging that there was the possibility of someone thinking maybe there was something wrong with what was going on with their actions, Goldman Sachs said that the marketing materials were “incomplete.” Oh, man. If all I had to say everytime I messed up was that my work was “incomplete,” I’d be in high school again and getting C’s and D’s. Come on, guys. You scam the country, pay your way out of it and don’t even get criminal charges. Is this the toughness that comes out of Obama talking tough on Wall Street? I’m calling you out on this one, Obama. This is an “incomplete” look at this problem, and an incomplete solution. You have no admission of wrongdoing, no new rules yet to keep it from happening, and $550 million dollars, which is a fraction of what you spend in a month. Worthless. And Forgettable.

Photo Credit: DavidDMuir