What was it that touched off today’s market rally? According to the UK Telegraph, it was due to analyst Meredith Whitney’s urge to buy Goldman Sachs. Why is Whitney so confident about Goldman Sach’s future performance?

Our more bullish outlook on Goldman Sachs shares is deeply rooted in our sustained bearish stance on the U.S. economy and the state of U.S. financials at large. Specifically, we expect a tsunami of debt issuance from federal/sovereign, state, and local governments ramping up debt issuance to fund woefully underfunded budget gaps. In addition, we expect corporate debt issuance to be at least 60% as strong as peak cycle levels, reflecting sizable debt maturity rolls. What’s more, given fewer players in the market, not only is GS benefiting from market share gains on these products but more widely in the derivatives products.

It’s an ill wind that blows no good. This is one case where GS investors are going to make out like bandits because of a continuing bad economy and an unprecedented level of borrowing. Good news, huh?

This may be the right time to buy shares of Goldman Sachs - provided you haven’t lost your job or exhausted your savings.

And you can thank Barack Obama

We should not be surprised.

Goldman Sachs’ new top lobbyist was recently the top staffer to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., on the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Frank. Michael Paese, a registered lobbyist for the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association since he left Frank’s committee in September, will join Goldman as director of government affairs, a role held last year by former Tom Daschle intimate, Mark Patterson, now the chief of staff at the Treasury Department.

The incestuous relationship between Goldman Sachs and government is as bipartisan as it is seedy, but it is particularly noxious that GS would hire the former staffer of a man committed to destroying the free market.

I wonder if, like General Electric, Goldman has decided if it whores itself enough to the Democrats, the Democrats might keep it in bed with them.