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Goldman Sachs Created Derivatives as Weapons of Mass Destruction Before 2008 Crash

The Duran · How China Escaped Banker Shock Therapy w/ Cynthia Chung · July 11, 2026
Goldman Sachs Created Derivatives as Weapons of Mass Destruction Before 2008 Crash
The Duran
The Duran
How China Escaped Banker Shock Therapy w/ Cynthia Chung
"Goldman Sachs was found out through the inside job documentary that they had purposely created derivatives where they would make a profit if their clients lost money. And the more money their clients lost, the bigger the profit they would make."
Cynthia Chung reveals that investment banks, particularly Goldman Sachs, deliberately engineered complex financial derivatives designed to profit from client losses prior to the 2008 financial crisis. She connects this to Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson's transition to U.S. Treasury Secretary (2006-2009), positioning him to oversee both the crisis response and global financial reform while maintaining ties to China through 70+ visits since the 1970s.

About this episode

Alexander Mercouris and host interview Cynthia Chung, a China analyst, who systematically dismantles Western narratives about Chinese authoritarianism and reveals extensive Western financial intervention attempts in China. Chung traces how Goldman Sachs, under CEO Henry Paulson who became Treasury Secretary during the 2008 crisis, deliberately created derivatives as weapons designed to profit from client losses. She exposes that the infamous Chinese social credit system was actually initiated by Alibaba and Tencent—both registered in the Cayman Islands and backed by Goldman Sachs—as part of predatory peer-to-peer lending schemes imported from the West following the 2008 crash. The Chinese government under Xi Jinping intervened with banking regulations requiring 30% reserves, effectively shutting down these fintech operations, including the forced retreat of Jack Ma's Ant Group just before its massive IPO. Chung reveals BlackRock and Microsoft have been hired by G7 to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative through global infrastructure acquisition, connecting this to Panama Canal controversies. She describes China's actual economic model as emphasizing stability through decentralized competition, citing over eight major AI competitors versus Western monopoly consolidation, and drawing on centuries of Confucian philosophy and Han Dynasty economic lessons rather than communist doctrine. Most Chinese citizens don't identify as communist, she notes, and experience less government intrusion than Westerners imagine while benefiting from fierce market competition and anti-predatory regulations. The discussion concludes with Chung arguing Western elites fear China's alternative development model because it exposes extractive capitalism's failures.

Key takeaways

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