Goldman Sachs as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity"

Rolling Stone is out with a 12-page story (Not available on the internet) by Matt Taibbi on Goldman Sachs.

I haven't read the article, yet. Here's Felix Salmon's take:

I don't agree with all of Taibbi's article, but I'm surprised at how much of it I do agree with, especially when it comes to the subject of regulatory capture. Taibbi spends no little time looking at Goldman subsidiary J Aron, and the semi-secret letter it was issued by the CFTC in 1991, the existence of which wasn't even known to Brooksley Born, who was then the chair. The letter allowed Goldman to ramp up its activities in Chicago by orders of magnitude. When Congress asked to see the letter, the CFTC was careful to ask Goldman first if that would be OK.

I can't, off the top of my head, think of a single government regulation over the past couple of decades which has remotely harmed Goldman Sachs; by contrast, there are many which have done it a world of good. The chances that the Fed, or any other systemic risk regulator, will be able to rein in this powerful organization are probably slim.