Goldman Sachs is one of those companies that is so intertwined with the government that you can't tell the pigs from the men anymore. Like Archer Daniels Midland, and too many others. People move back and forth between Goldman Sachs positions to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs#Alumni|political positions. The company has dumped millions in donations and lobbying, to both parties, largely depending on which party is currently in power.

Goldman Sachs put almost a million dollars into the Obama campaign alone.

I've heard this called "corporatism" - the eager use of the power of government to accomplish private ends. Tuning the tax code to reward themselves and punish competitors, setting up licensing and regulations that favor themselves and penalize others, working out ways to funnel taxpayer money into their own coffers, insulating themselves from their own failure and incompetence, and basically doing the same things merchant princes used to do in the courts of kings and emperors.

Companies like this thrive in a mixed economy, while companies that can't or won't play these games end up with the short end of the stick.

This is not how a free market is supposed to operate.