GS - Intresting Article (thoughts?!)

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/how-goldman-sachs-made-tens-of-billions-of-dollars-from-the-economic-collapse-of-america-in-four-easy-steps Okay Read then Discuss… :slight_smile:

Couldn’t make it past point 4. Just sounds like some idiot who doesnt understand much about what happened but has heard enough from her “down with the man/conspiracy friends” to feel entitled to write a blog about it. I hate people like that. This article is much better; http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2010/01/04/fannie-freddie-and-the-new-red-and-blue/

"Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has become perhaps the most prominent symbol for everything that is wrong with the U.S. financial system…"By the end of first sentence, I already knew the person who write this article has no idea how capital market works…needless to say, I didn’t finish reading it.

ws Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > "Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has become > perhaps the most prominent symbol for everything > that is wrong with the U.S. financial > system…"By the end of first sentence, I > already knew the person who write this article has > no idea how capital market works…needless to > say, I didn’t finish reading it. LOL true, but it was entertaining to say the least… :slight_smile:

Although clearly biased and not all-encompassing, there is one good point: Goldman shouldn’t have been selling MBS to clients while having made an internal call to short the market. This info should have been disclosed to clients. I’m sure they have at least a few CFAs working for them, this would constitute a clear violation of the C&S.

adavydov7 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Although clearly biased and not all-encompassing, > there is one good point: > > Goldman shouldn’t have been selling MBS to clients > while having made an internal call to short the > market. This info should have been disclosed to > clients. I’m sure they have at least a few CFAs > working for them, this would constitute a clear > violation of the C&S. Hows that a violation? What if the clients requested to buy MBS’ against Goldmans recommendations?

adavydov7 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Although clearly biased and not all-encompassing, > there is one good point: > > Goldman shouldn’t have been selling MBS to clients > while having made an internal call to short the > market. This info should have been disclosed to > clients. I’m sure they have at least a few CFAs > working for them, this would constitute a clear > violation of the C&S. If the buying clients had few CFA on their staff, I am sure they can take the time and read the offering detail, actually GS had expressed negative view in the offering (fine prints). It is just that nobody took the time to read or to understand it.

@nuppal: a client is permitted to make a trade against the recommendation of the company but must be informed prior to being allowed to place the trade. Have you not read the ethics portion of the curriculum? @ws: That’s not the client’s responsibility, its Goldman’s Duty to its Clients to inform them (this information is material enough to warrant prominent disclosure). Also if you will remember the C&S the disclosure must be prominent and made in plain language. Also if you have something from GS dated 2006 with such disclosure (and not just boilerplate) I would love to see it (however fine).

If they are shorting MBS in their prop trading operation, while selling them in GSAM I really don’t think it’s a violation. In fact since they have barriers between operations it would be considered a good operation under C&S.

Step 3: Have ex-Goldman executives in key positions of power in the U.S. government so that bailout money can be funneled to entities such as AIG that Goldman has made these bets with so that they could get paid. Actually, Goldman has been planning this out for generations. They knew the housing market would collapse way back before they even hired the top execs who now work for the government. Goldman actually employed Nostradamus for this one all in the name of making money when everyone else was losing it. And if you believe that you probably also believed Barack Obama when he talked about change.

@nuppal: if it was their proprietary trading then it should have been halted (blacklisted) while they were recommending of MBS securities to their clients. I am fairly sure they didn’t violate the law (or C&S) but they sure as hell violated the spirit. The way they got around this is by marketing CDOs to clients while making short bets using ABX and CDS. Since, these instruments are “different,” albeit closely related, they probably felt like “hey why should we say something? its not like we are selling our clients IBM while simultaenously shorting IBM for our own account!” @czar: I did believe Obama when he promised change. I believed the change would come in the form of our government moving from wasting billions to trillions of dollars. My beliefs of the change expected were right!

adavydov7 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > @nuppal: if it was their proprietary trading then > it should have been halted (blacklisted) while > they were recommending of MBS securities to their > clients. > Ok, I see your point now. I agree, they shouldn’t have had such obvious conflicting interests. Not ethical. As far as GS employees in the gov’t. Everyone should read “Too Big to Fail” -Sorkin. You’ll see how scared Paulson and his team were of even contacting GS during the fire drill.