Posted on 11/18/2009 9:27:51 PM PST by DontTreadOnMe2009
Goldman may be the "most profitable" Wall Street firm but I will simply observe that it is trivially simple to be "profitable" when one does wrong, since it is always easier to make money by doing wrong than by acting with honor and propriety.
No Lloyd, your apology is not accepted, as it is insincere. You are simply trying to deflect attention from the well-deserved hit to your reputation - a reputation that, from my perspective, is somewhere south of Satan's.
Have a nice day Jackass and may you burn in Hell.
(Excerpt) Read more at market-ticker.org ...
Goldman Sachs is The Devil....
To prevent duplication, please do not alter the title. Thanks.
Absolute, unadultarated Barbara Striesand. Their net exposure to AIG was negligible. AIG had posted cash collateral to Goldman for the CDS obligations. In the event of the bankruptcy, Goldman could simply kept that collateral, which would have covered about 70% of their value. They would have recovered the remaining 30% via the CDS contracts they bought on AIG from other counterparties, for which they also had collateral.
The author of this clearly does not understand how derivatives markets work.
Another $21 billion financed at RADICALLY below-market rates due to government guarantees - that is, an explicit taxpayer subsidy.
That's true, though you can hardly blame Goldman for that one. They had no choice in that matter. The Fed unilatiarlly went and started guaranteeing all big banks' bond issues. Goldman did not lobby for it or ask for it, but they would be violating their fiduciary duty to their shareholders if it didn't take advantage of it.
If you want to get upset with someone about the taxpayer guarantees, then get upset with Ben Bernanke. Goldman's CEO was only looking out for his shareholders, which was his primary responsibility.
When people get mad and rant about CEO’s, they forget that a CEO must do all he can to maximize profits within the limits of the law.
He can't steal or bribe, but he owes it to the investors to do the best he can.
The fault lies with the government which initiates these crazy schemes that allow or force corporations to go down roads they otherwise would not. The community Reinvestment Act being a prime example.
On the other hand, if it is true as has been charged that Goldman Sachs met in Russia with Paulson and hatched all of what followed, that puts a different light on the matter.
There are laws against that.
The entire page at TheMarketTicker is an interesting read. Thanks for posting.
OK
Goldman Sachs is The Devil....
Yes.
That's true of Lehman, Citigroup, Merrill, Bear, and some others. Those banks had the most incredibly irresponsible risk management practices in the history of the industry.
Of all the banks, Goldman was actually the soundest in this area, along with JP Morgan. They did not need TARP money to survive the crisis. Nor did they need the government gauarntees to issue debt.
The populist anger directed at Goldman is absurd.
The real villans in this story are the government officials who created the "too-big-to-fail" doctrine.
That's the first I heard of it. Is there any good evidence for it?
I saw this posted but I did not save the link so I can’t verify it.
I have things I have to do for the rest of the day, so I can’t research this until tonight.
Just got back to the office and it took less than 5 minutes.
“The populist anger directed at Goldman is absurd.”
I think a lot of it has to do with all the former GS employees in our Gov. and the suspicion that Paulson and Geitner and others were colluding with the GS.
And what you ignore is the 'job' swapping that has gone on from across the public and private lines. Government is run by people, and these people have good buddies who fund parties and campaigns and individuals. Now please don't try and tell me these high rollers did NOT back the liberal party, liberal campaigns and liberal individuals... They paid to play. And you want to talk about populists.
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