[peace-discuss] 'Populism' means most of us

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Goldman Sachs staff ‘arm themselves against public’

	Bloomberg columnist Alice Schroeder claims
	senior bankers are seeking pistol permits
	BY JACK BREMER
	LAST UPDATED DECEMBER 2, 2009

Writer Alice Schroeder, a respected columnist for Bloomberg News and bestselling 
biographer of Warren Buffett (with whom she is photographed above), has claimed 
that senior members of the Goldman Sachs bank in New York have begun to arm 
themselves in fear of a popular uprising against bankers.

In a column posted yesterday, Schroeder quoted a friend saying: "I just wrote my 
first reference for a gun permit." The friend went on to explain that they had 
sworn to the good character of a Goldman Sachs banker who had applied to the 
police for a pistol permit.

The banker had told Schroeder's friend that senior Goldman staffers had "loaded 
up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist 
uprising against the bank".

Schroeder said that when she rang the bank's spokesman Lucas van Praag for a 
comment "to ask whether it's true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns 
to protect themselves from the angry proletariat" he never returned her call.

However, the NYPD told her that "as a preliminary matter" the police believed 
that some of the bankers Schroeder inquired about did indeed have pistol 
permits. The police told her it would be "a while" before they could confirm names.

If Schroeder were a less distinguished journalist, her story might be taken less 
seriously. But she is a highly respected figure in Wall Street circles was was 
chosen by BusinessWeek alongside Ben Bernanke and Hillary Clinton as one of the 
"People to Watch in 2008".

She turned to journalism after working as an insurance analyst at Morgan Stanley 
and is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Snowball: Warren Buffett 
and the Business of Life, published a year ago.

The Snowball was also shortlisted for the 2008 Business Book of the Year Award - 
sponsored by the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 'Populism' means most of us
Date: Tue,  1 Dec 2009 12:44:40 -0600 (CST)
From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>

Obama's slavish devotion to the interests of America's moneyed elite (and his 
disregard of the contrary interests of the vast majority of Americans) has led 
to arms, not only in the Middle East but on Wall Street:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ahD2WoDAL9h0

“I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me 
of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who 
applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told 
this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and 
are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against 
the bank.