Jon Stewart Takes Down Goldman Sachs

Last month, earnings season was in full swing. We saw that the major banks, which had been so close to insolvency last fall, had recovered nicely. Goldman Sachs led the way with billions in profits for the second quarter of 2009. As a result, last month Jon Stewart did a takedown of Goldman Sachs on The Daily Show.

What Stewart doesn’t remind us of, however, is that when Goldman was getting rescued, Henry Paulson was the Treasury Secretary under President George W. Bush. In his former life as a businessman, Paulson had been CEO of…Goldman Sachs. While one can’t make solid accusations about the motives behind the all that was done to help Goldman, it seems fairly clear that there is a connection between who you know and the kind of financing you receive.

This is true for small businesses as well. If you develop a relationship with your lender, or if you take the time to make worthwhile connections in your community, you might find it a little bit easier to get the financing help you need when things get tight.