Goldman Sachs is a government agency masquerading as an investment bank, masquerading as a commercial bank to receive FDIC debt guarantees.
The beat goes on...uninterrupted.
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If you missed the announcement late last week that Goldman Sachs hired former Republican Sen. Judd Gregg to be an international advisor, don't blame yourself.
It came out Friday when most people were thinking more about the long holiday weekend ahead than the latest effort by the investment bank to add to its stable of worthies an influential former Capitol Hill lawmaker.
Anyway, the former senator from New Hampshire who, as you'll recall, turned down President Obama's offer of the Commerce Secretary's job, will join Goldman's board of international advisors, nearly 20 former corporate chief executives and government officials.
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In the wake of the financial crisis, which has been partly blamed on the excesses of Wall Street banks such as Goldman, Gregg was an outspoken critic of the Obama administration's effort to tighten oversight of the financial industry. He was also a defender of Goldman during the heated congressional debate over the $700 billion bank bailout.
Early last year, Gregg said that Democrats were overreacting to civil charges filed against Goldman for securities fraud by using the indictment to push regulatory reform. He noted at the time that the allegations had not yet been proven in court.
"It's really disingenuous for some people to pursue regulatory reform based off this one instance," the retired senator said on MSNBC. "This is a single event, we don't even know what the outcome will be."