Is this the man who got Goldmans off?

Adam Storch, a 30-year-old who – as you can see from his picture above, seriously fancies himself – was named the SEC enforcement division’s new COO over a year ago. There’s a very forceful and profane view recorded at the time about this from a bloke on YouTube which (for a change) has proved to be entirely prescient. Because young Mr Storch used to work for….Goldman Sachs.

It never ends, does it? On the same day as I discovered this – following minimal research – these other events also took place…and for those readers who’re asking what’s this got to do with us in Merrie Olde England, don’t forget that this bunch of scheisters also swindled RBS out of a billion dollars:

1. After spending many millions of dollars to lobby against the new financial legislation, US bankers are returning to Plan A: adapting to the rules and passing on the costs to customers. Faced with new limits on fees associated with debit cards, for instance, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and others immediately – within 36 hours – switched to imposing fees on current accounts.

2. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner is secretly opposing the appointment of Elizabeth Warren as head of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Why? Well, Warren’s role as a bailout watchdog led to strained relations with the cowboy outfit her panel has taken to task with brutal reports every month since Obama took office…..Geithner’s Treasury Department. Just fancy that.

Geithner, you will remember, still has lots of unanswered questions to face about financial bailout arrangements between AIG and Bear Stearns, and rather whopping fibs he told to the Congressional Committee along with his pardner, Ben the Bernanke….not forgetting the Goldman Sachs clause about not being sued by AIG ever again about anything forever, or else.

3. And then of course there is Mr Squeaky-Clean himself, the President. “Government can’t generate the jobs or growth we need by itself,” Obama said yesterday. “But what government can do is lay the foundation for small businesses to expand and to hire.”

Well Barack old buddy, you could for instance order the banks to start lending to small businesses, and stop selling each other pork belly default futures swaps with some incomplete information in the brochures.

I honestly don’t think anything can clean up the sink of iniquity that is Western financial institutions; and I have no faith whatsoever in governments doing the cleaning thing, because (a) both sectors are mutually interdependent, and (b) as often as not they’re the same people…..especially in the US and the EU.

Ultimately, it’s all just a symptom of cultural decline. But as every month passes, I retain fears that the most terrible vengeance is going to be wrought one day.