The Goldman Sachs-Mitt Romney connection

>>> mitt romney 's special relationship with goldman sachs has come back into view. greg smith riding in his new york times op-ed saying i've seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as muppets the you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the junior analyst hearing about muppets doesn't turn into a model season. now they are pushing back. many have said that smith's op-ed did to goldman sachs what it's been doing to clients for a decade now. it's highlighted the firm's strong and long ties to mitt romney and his family. back with us is david corn . just take a look at some of the things. bain capital did many deals with goldman . they were close, the not really preferred partners. how far would this guilt by association go?

>> it goes pretty far because not only did his firm work with goldman sachs and put deals together, after that happened when goldman went public, it gave mitt romney the right to be 7,000 shares in the i.p.o., which you and i, at least i know about me, i don't know about you, richard, we don't get those deals handed to it. even for insiders, that amount of shares would seem to be really big amount. he sold them a couple of years later. pocketed $750,000 or as rmitt romney would say, pocket change . i'm not shocked that goldman is out there looking after its own bottom line more than that of its clients.

>> because they're a business.

>> also it cares more about own managing directors and partners and how much money they're making than what they are doing for their clients, which is a change from the way this business used to run years ago.

>> from the reports that we're raetding, the romneys have done well because of goldman . close to $10 million in 2010 . this from what you remarked close relationships with the corner offices.

>> back in january, we listed all the goldman sachs properties and bonds and offers that he had interest in. i know if you can see on this page but there are three long pages of all these goldman sachs fund, and it comes about because he worked with them and they gave him a good deal. the big issue here is capitalism. when the 1 percenters capture and occupy the mind he's the poster boy for this issue.

>> as we look at the damage that's already been done and this question of muppets , could romney, based on all of his investments, great portion going to goldman sachs , could he will be victim of what we're talking about right now?

>> i think this calls into question who he hangs out with. how he's made his money. he said on fox that i've made a lot of money. i'm not ashamed of that. once he did make money he got these generous offers that are not available to the rest of us. when you start getting these inside deals because you've already made money, that doesn't really strike at the american notion of fairness. i think barack obama is going to be talking about fairness a lot in the months to come particularly if mitt romney is the nominee of the republican party .