Goldman Sachs takes control of Europe

There's an article in today's Le Monde that reveals that 3 of the most important new figures in European Politics are closely associated with Goldman Sachs. It does not take a great leap of the imagination to suppose that they may have been placed there deliberately as part of a policy to promote Goldman Sachs interests..

First, there's Mario Draghi, the new head of the European Central Bank. It turns out that he was vice-president of Goldman Sachs Europe from 2002 to 2005.

Second, there's Mario Monti, the new president of the Italian government who has just replaced Berlusconi. He has been an international advisor to Goldman Sachs since 2005, and only resigned his position at the weekend, a point also noted by a commentary in the Guardian as well as on Bloomberg.

Third, there's the new Greek prime minister, Lucas Papadémos, who was head of the Greek Central Bank from 1994 to 2002, and was directly involved with Goldman Sachs operation to hide the level of Greek government debt in order to meet the Eurozone criteria.

Add to that the fact that the person responsible for managing Greek debt is Petros Christodoulos, an ex-Goldman Sachs trader, and you have what is looking more than just a bit suspicious.

I was already well aware of the lobbying power of financial sector institutions like Goldman Sachs. But I would have never have imagined that they were able to get two democratically elected European leaders replaced by their men, and put another of their men in charge of the ECB.

We will have to watch these people like hawks. And they will have to convince us all that their actions are in the interests of their citizens - and not in the interests of Goldman Sachs. In my case, they will have a very tough job.