“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth. Son, we live in a country with an investment gap. And that gap needs to be filled by men with money. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Middle Class Consumer? Goldman Sachs has a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Lehman and you curse derivatives. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know: that Lehman’s death, while tragic, probably saved the financial system. And that Goldman’s existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves pension funds. You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want us to fill that investment gap. You need us to fill that gap. “We use words like credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligation, and securitization? We use these words as the backbone of a life spent investing in something. You use ‘em as a punchline. We have neither the time nor the inclination to explain ourselves to a commoner who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very credit we provide, and then questions the manner in which we provide it! We’d rather you just said thank you and paid your taxes on time. Otherwise, we suggest you get an account and start trading. Either way, we don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to!”

**UPDATE**
My father sent me this quick story about yesterday’s hearings and I liked it a lot.

A rich tourist comes to town.

He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 euro note on the reception counter and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 euro note and runs to pay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the 100 euro note and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town’s prostitute who, in these hard times, gave her services on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel and pays off her debt with the 100 euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms and takes his 100 euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Europe and North America are doing business today.