Goldman Sachs banksters

I have an interest in the finance sector because of my former career as a financial adviser, so when I found the link to the Goldman Sachs senatorial hearing yesterday, I just had to look. I am or I should say, was apolitical, and I am not much for ethical debates, but there was a rather interesting viewpoint that emerged.
At no point in the theatrics did I get the impression that the Banksters were in the slightest concerned never mind sorry about a documented systematic fraud that occurred in the Goldman Sachs merchant bank. And I am certain it was repeated in countless other banks around the globe.
Now, the Goldman Sachs people are clearly intelligent and resourceful; Lloyd Blankfein for that matter, is very bright. The verbal & mental agility he used to dodge the committee was nothing short of outstanding. The products at the centre of the issue are complex and not easily understood by laypeople which of course is a large part of the problem, but there seems to be no arguing the fact that Goldman Sachs knowingly sold product that were designed to fail. With that understood, it is clear to me that the appropriate reaction should be shame, and embarrassment.
I did not see any evidence of that and I am sure that no one did.
What I did see, was a corporate culture that has a frightening similarity to that of the Crime Families, the Mafia or the Triads. A culture that is bent on protection of their own, rapaciously indifferent to the consequences of their actions, focused only on money that can be made by any means.
If you sell something that is faulty, or badly made, you should refund the money spent, or replace the product with one that is not faulty. Goldman Sachs and the other banksters run rather with “caveat emptor” and are prepared no doubt to protect their profits by legal maneuvering that is prohibitively costly for individuals to combat.
We cannot expect governments to legislate against the banksters – their lobby groups are so strong that key individuals in the major parties here and overseas are in their pocket-books so to speak. It will be a brave government that will do more than grandstand and use the publicity from exposure of the worst of the excesses to get them re-elected.
The best we can do as individuals is to act with integrity in our dealings with our customers and with our colleagues, whilst striving at all times to be an example to our peers.
A form of community banking may be a partial solution. We will need to consider what needs to be done to reform the financial system.