person can t get it. the idea that only wall street can a big hit during this whole debate has been goldman sachs, fair or unfair. so now to clean up their image they re pledging to stay out of politics or at least out of political advertising. the firm pledged this week they would not spend any of their money on political ads and it s relevant this year because the supreme court ruling earlier this year gave corporations the power to donate totally unlimited amounts of money to candidates for political office. matt, we know well you are one of goldman sachs harshest critics, so were you surprised by the pledge to stay out of election ads? no, not surprised because it s a meaningless gesture. goldman is excellent at those. last year they made a number of those public relations gestures. one wasn t so meaningless that they decided to forgo fourth quarter bonuses, something like $5 billion, but they still got $16 billion in bonus last year, a pr move.
candidates, i don t think goldman should be restricting that. but the onus is on us and voters to really watch who is donating money to politicians. and because we re operating now in a winner-take-all economy where people on wall street, people in silicon valley, big business has a law on money, those personal donations can add up and can really influence who wins, who loses. all right. we re going to take a quick break. both of you are staying with us. coming up next, why pinball, of all things, is the reason one business owner is being forced to close his doors for good. really. you have to see this one to believe it.
no. there is no possible way. juan: bill clinton wants point is. this i m surprised at. this i m not. juan: bill clinton is saying that the investors should know what they are investing in. if they don t know what they re investing in, you can t blame goldman sachs. so they broke no law in the opinion of democrat bill clinton that. could end up being correct. my point on this is the whole sec investigation is a red herring. it s like going after al capone on a jay walking charge and giving him a $5 ticket. what we should be angry, all taxpayers should be upset about goldman for is the massive multi billion-dollar bailout of a.i.g. that went straight into goldman s pocket or under bill clinton the bailout of goldman for buying bad russian bonds, bad indonesia bonds, bad mexican bonds. what happens is wall street guys make insane risky betsd that no sane person would make. when it goes well, they keep all the profits. when it doesn t go well, they go
going to stick it to goldman. they are not sticking to goldman. goldman will settle this sec case for a couple million and it will be nothing. juan: get off the politics for a moment and look at the national. what s good more the nation? some institutions on wall street too big to fail. if they fail it impacts us badly. it freezes the credit market. right. juan: it makes it impossible to do business on main street. are you saying ignore that? let these big boys fail? what i m saying is the horse is already the horses are out of the barn at that point. it is because of 20 years of democrats in washington, sorry, juan. bailing out goldman that goldman knew they could make insane bets. they could make insane trades with a.i.g. with a trading partner that if the bets go bad wouldn t be able to pay them back. and in fact a.i.g. wasn t able to pay them back. we paid a.i.g. and a.i.g. paid goldman. that s the issue. on jawb because you are not someone who just trucks in rhetoric but
distract us by pretending we are going to stick it to goldman. they are not sticking to goldman. goldman will settle this sec case for a couple million and it will be nothing. juan: get off the politics for a moment and look at the national. what s good more the nation? some institutions on wall street too big to fail. if they fail it impacts us badly. it freezes the credit market. right. juan: it makes it impossible to do business on main street. are you saying ignore that? let these big boys fail? what i m saying is the horse is already the horses are out of the barn at that point. it is because of 20 years of democrats in washington, sorry, juan. bailing out goldman that goldman knew they could make insane bets. they could make insane trades with a.i.g. with a trading partner that if the bets go bad wouldn t be able to pay them back. and in fact a.i.g. wasn t able to pay them back. we paid a.i.g. and a.i.g. paid goldman. that s the issue. on jawb because you are not someon