They get, all right . . .


Sometime during the next week, Goldman Sachs is going to make headlines by paying back the federal money it was loaned to help it through the financial meltdown. It'll be a supposedly feel good moment, with a lot of emphasis on the firm's financial health and how the taxpayers picked up a quick five percent interest on the dough.

There's a lot more to the story, though. Most importantly, the people who run Goldman don't want to function under the scrutiny of the public, and don't want to have to limit their pay to something less than obscene. (Thirty million for the boss seems pretty obscene to me.)

The attitude on all Street - and beyond - remains: we'll take whatever we can, until things sour, then you can rescue us. But if you want to impose rules that will keep us from screwing you in the future, you're shit out of luck.

They get it - and so do we. Unfortunately, what we get is the shaft.