[mlocher]

It's not the nature of the actions. It's the seriousness of the charges. The dems must really be squirming to get financial reform bill moving. The administration is bringing up an old case that was already probed and GS was found to have acted properly.

It will be interesting to see where this goes. And it will be interesting to see how the financial reform bill plays out.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[balls]

I don’t think this is what it appears to be. If you read between the lines during Blankfein’s responses to Republican questions in yesterday’s hearing, he is a solid 0 supporter. He didn’t take any of the lifelines that were thrown to him. This is probably a diversion and going nowhere i.e. maybe there will be a token fine of a billion or so.

[seton89]

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/04/somali-pirates-say-they-are-subsidiary-of-goldman-sachs/

Somali Pirates Say They Are Subsidiary of Goldman Sachs
By Barry Ritholtz - April 26th, 2010, 3:40PM

Could Make Prosecution Difficult, Experts Say

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA – (The Borowitz Report) Eleven indicted Somali pirates dropped a bombshell in a U.S. court today, revealing that their entire piracy operation is a subsidiary of banking giant Goldman Sachs.
There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when the leader of the pirates announced, “We are doing God’s work.  We work for Lloyd Blankfein.”
The pirate, who said he earned a bonus of $48 million in dubloons last year, elaborated on the nature of the Somalis’ work for Goldman, explaining that the pirates forcibly attacked ships that Goldman had already shorted.
“We were functioning as investment bankers, only every day was casual Friday,” the pirate said.
The pirate acknowledged that they merged their operations with Goldman in late 2008 to take advantage of the more relaxed regulations governing bankers as opposed to pirates, “plus to get our share of the bailout money.”
In the aftermath of the shocking revelations, government prosecutors were scrambling to see if they still had a case against the Somali pirates, who would now be treated as bankers in the eyes of the law.
“There are lots of laws that could bring these guys down if they were, in fact, pirates,” one government source said.  “But if they’re bankers, our hands are tied.” 

[balls]

I meant to add that financial reform will be very favorable to GS.

[gleeaikin]

Here is an interesting link about a company called Magnetar Capital, which had a significant role in promoting toxic “shorts” during the failing market. Lots of interesting comments, and some good linked articles at the bottom of the page:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8a79c6f6-47f7-11df-b998-00144feab49a.html

[Kimberly GG]

Wouldn’t it be nice if they eventually figured all this out:

http://www.mofopolitics.com/2010/04/29/video-glenn-beck-show-42910/

[bankwalker]

Here is another take on our economically illiterate elected officials (and thus, the electorate).

Don't tell parsy. He might learn something.