"When the proles do appear brandishing pitchforks at the doors of Park Avenue"

Alice Schroeder, Bloomberg.com columnist, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, talks about Goldman execs getting pistol permits. Interesting column for other reasons too - a use of the curtain metaphore (is it time for a Wizard of Oz remake?) and of the Orwellian/Bolshevik Proles. Talk about pitchfork-brandishing mobs of proles - on Bloomberg? Indeed, so many things have come to pass.

Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public (Alice Schroeder on Bloomberg.com):

"He tried to buy a house elsewhere without attracting attention as the financial crisis unfolded in 2007, a move that was foiled by the New York Post. Then, Blankfein got permission from the local authorities to install a security gate at his house two months before Bear Stearns Cos. collapsed.

This is the kind of foresight that Goldman Sachs is justly famous for. Blankfein somehow anticipated the persecution complex his fellow bankers would soon suffer. Surely, though, this man who can afford to surround himself with a private army of security guards isn’t sleeping with the key to a gun safe under his pillow. The thought is just too bizarre to be true.

So maybe other senior people at Goldman Sachs have gone out and bought guns, and they know something. But what?"