Free Republic

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Public investment funds based in Texas could invest directly in transportation projects through a new corporation under a plan unveiled on Thursday by the state's legislative leaders and the governor. Texas has the nation's biggest road privatization plan but the legislature, reacting to criticisms that developers were enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers, enacted a two-year moratorium. That has crimped road-building projects and led to a series of clashes between the governor and the legislature, who now have agreed on a compromise plan. Developers, including overseas companies, investment banks and private equity funds all vie...

As financial storm signals appeared the past 18 months, some Bush officials urged drastic reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But, according to internal government sources, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson objected because it would look "too political." The Republican administration kept its hands off the government-backed mortgage companies that are closely connected to the Democratic establishment. Paulson is a Republican, but as head of the Goldman Sachs investment bank he had close ties with Democratic-dominated Fannie Mae.

How did the U.S. financial crisis happen? A review of the road to ruin reveals a course littered with more villains than heroes. No, it’s not the Great Depression, but the United States is facing a nasty economy-wide retrenchment following the excesses of the 2000s, with no easy way to dance through it. Think 1979 to 1982, when then U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker exorcised consumer price inflation from the economy. The difference today is that the inflationary explosion has been absorbed by prices of assets—houses, stocks and bonds, office buildings—rather than by the prices of things you buy...

Industry Leaders Frown on Dark Pool Trend June 6, 2008 By Nina Mehta Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, bucking a growing trend among the operators of dark pools, are vowing to stay pure. The two bulge-bracket shops tell Traders Magazine they have no intention of broadcasting out information about orders in MS Pool and Sigma X, their respective alternative trading systems. They say that occurs when electronic indications of interest are sent to third-party pools. "Sending indications out is something that removes the dark aspect of a dark pool," said Andrew Silverman, head of electronic trading distribution at Morgan Stanley....

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A network of lenders, brokers and opaque financing vehicles outside traditional banking that ballooned during the bull market now is under siege as regulators threaten a crackdown on the so-called shadow banking system.Big brokerage firms like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers , Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch, which some say are the biggest players in this non-bank financial network, may have the most to lose from stricter regulation. The shadow banking system grew rapidly during the past decade, accumulating more than $10 trillion in assets by early 2007. That made it roughly the same size as the...

Buying into 'the petroleum for the next century' ROB CARRICK Friday, June 13, 2008 Looking to jump into an investment in a scarce resource with lots of upside potential? There's a clear case to be made for water. Oil and gas, metals and fertilizers and food are still going strong, while investors have only recently started to talk about water. And yet, water has much the same imbalance between supply and demand as traditional resources. The investment dealer Goldman Sachs recently described water as the “the petroleum for the next century.” Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds focusing on water have...

Lord Stern and Lord Giddens frightened the wits out of a Goldman Sachs audience I attended this week on the risks of a global water, food, and energy crisis. Without wishing to take a stand one way or the other on the bitterly polarized issue of climate change, I pass on some of their remarks so readers can judge for themselves. Nicholas Stern -- the author of the Government’s Stern Report on the economic effects of climate change, and former chief economist at the World Bank -- said we have a one in two chance of destroying civilization within the...

Anyone that cares to learn about what is going on in the world is familiar with active jihad, the "holy war", conducted with terrorism and directed at the modern world in general and Western Civilization more specifically. But there is also another form of jihad that is part of the deliberate effort to have Islam replace all concepts of morality and the values held dear by the rest of us. The name of this silent "fifth column" effort is "Sharia Banking". Unfortunately, Sharia Banking is increasingly accepted by Western banking institutions without any real understanding of what the Muslim goal...

Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, downgraded the European retail sector to "underweight" on fears that food retailers will be unable to pass price rises on to consumers. The bank also downgraded the personal and household goods sector to "neutral", pointing to a deteriorating outlook for consumer spending and input cost increases across the sector. The downgrades show just how bleak the outlook is for consumer-facing companies in light of the global economic slowdown. Goldman said that inflation fears are on the increase. "Companies face an extraordinary rise in commodity prices, as well as in other costs, including labour and...

While conservatives inside the administration are unhappy about intervention in markets, President Bush seems content with how the Federal Reserve and Treasury cooked up the deal with erstwhile colleagues in Wall Street. There is little conservative or Republican about the administration's approach to the fiscal crisis, as reflected in Room G-50. Uncritical Democratic senators were not even inquisitive. The closest a senator came to asking who set the price for JPMorgan was this apologetic question from Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd: "There's just reports -- I want to share them with you -- that JPMorgan Chase would make an offer of...

The Clinton Tax Returns: What Will They Reveal? An ABC News Review Has Found the Clintons Have Made More Than $50 Million Since Leaving the White House By BRIAN ROSS and AVNI PATEL April 3, 2008— Hillary Clinton has been pulling out all the stops to win the Democratic nomination for president -- but one: she still has not released her family's tax returns. The campaign says they will release the documents sometime before April 15. Without them, many questions remain about how the Clintons made tens of millions of dollars -- and whether they used arcane tax loopholes available...

Goldman Sachs enters blank check arena Stephanie Baum 25 Mar 2008 Goldman Sachs is underwriting its first blank check deal as the market for these acquisition vehicles continues to grow and evolve. Liberty Lane Acquisition Company registered for a $350m (€224.3m) initial public offering. While it will make 35 million units available at $10 each, Liberty Lane will differ significantly from previous blank check agreements because its initial stockholders' shares of common stock will represent 7.5% of the total outstanding shares of common stock instead of the 20% of outstanding shares that has been typical for previous deals, according to...

March 22, 2008 Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers face downgrading Tom Bawden in New York Profits at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers could deteriorate significantly this year if the turmoil sweeping the capital markets persists, a leading research agency said yesterday. Standard & Poor's (S&P) gave warning that it might cut the credit ratings on both investment banks, lowering the outlook on Goldman and Lehman from “stable” to “negative”. That comment, which coincided with reports of looming job losses at Goldman, could result in higher borrowing costs and a fall in the banks' shares. S&P praised Goldman Sachs for producing...

New 'super-spike' might mean $200 a barrel oil Goldman's projections foretell persistent turbulence in energy prices By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch Last update: 1:42 p.m. EST March 7, 2008 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- With $100-a-barrel here for now, Goldman Sachs says $200 a barrel could be a reality in the not-too-distant future in the case of a "major disruption." Goldman on Friday also boosted by $10 the low end of its 2008-2012 projected range for crude to $60 a barrel -- significantly lower than current prices, to be sure, but a possible mark for oil if "normalized" trends return to the...

Goldman's profit magic may be fading Goldman might post its smallest quarterly profit in three years, as leveraged loans are likely to weigh on results. Kate Kelly And Peter Eavis, Wall Street Journal 25 Feb 2008 05:52 At a recent investor meeting, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein made a wry apology for arriving late. "This is the wrong time to keep shareholders waiting," he said, according to people with knowledge of the matter. "Maybe I should offer to wash your car or something to make up for it." The joke spoke to a sobering reality check. After...

Goldman Sachs set to cut 1,500 jobs Reuters Friday, January 25, 2008 LONDON — — U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs plans to release about 5 per cent of its global work force in coming months, a company spokesman said on Friday. Details of the cuts, which are set to take place across the bank's departments, are set to be announced by March, said the spokesman, adding this is part of the normal employee evaluation process. “We conduct performance reviews every year and this is part of that process,” said the spokesman. Goldman Sachs employs about 30,500 people worldwide, meaning the...

The subprime-mortgage crisis has been a financial catastrophe for much of Wall Street. At Goldman Sachs Group Inc., thanks to a tiny group of traders, it has generated one of the biggest windfalls the securities industry has seen in years. The group's big bet that securities backed by risky home loans would fall in value generated nearly $4 billion of profits during the year ended Nov. 30, according to people familiar with the firm's finances. Those gains erased $1.5 billion to $2 billion of mortgage-related losses elsewhere in the firm. On Tuesday, despite a terrible November and some of the...

Goldman says Japan in danger of recession Reuters - Thursday, January 10 TOKYO, Jan 10 - Japan's tepid economy is in danger of following the United States into a recession this year, economists at Goldman Sachs said on Thursday. Goldman's Japan economists said in a note to clients that the probability of a recession in the world's second-largest economy was 50 percent, forecasting slow growth in the first half of the year as emerging market economies cool. On Wednesday, Goldman's U.S. economists predicted a recession this year due to the housing market's tumble and weaker consumer spending, predicting the Federal...

NEW YORK - This might have been one of Wall Street's most dismal years in a decade, but that hasn't stopped bonus checks from rising an average of 14 percent. Four of the biggest U.S. investment banks — Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. — will pay out about $49.6 billion in compensation this year. Of that, bonuses are traditionally estimated to represent 60 percent, or almost $30 billion. But that might not sit well with investors who held on to investment bank stocks this year _ and watched them plunge by...

Mr Hatzius warned of a "substantial recession" risk Financial companies' losses due to the US sub-prime crisis could be as much as $400bn (£190bn), US investment bank Goldman Sachs has said.The estimate by Goldman's chief economist Jan Hatzius is higher than that of the Federal Reserve but in line with some recent independent forecasts. Mr Hatzius predicts leveraged investors may have to reduce their lending by $2 trillion as a result. "The macroeconomic consequences could be quite dramatic," Mr Hatzius said. He said the development could lead to a "substantial recession" if it happened over a year, or to...

Goldman Sachs made $300m last month from the rescue of one of the investment bank’s troubled hedge funds, even as external investors lost more than a fifth of their money.The bank’s Global Equity Opportunities fund, into which it injected $2bn of its own money as part of a $3bn bail-out in the middle of last month, recovered strongly after the rescue but still underperformed badly for August as a whole. The paper profit positions Goldman as one of the big beneficiaries of last month’s credit squeeze, although the bank is also likely to suffer from widening credit spreads and a...

Goldman Sachs lowers its fees Font Peter Thal Larsen, Banking editor | August 16, 2007 INVESTORS who helped Goldman Sachs inject $US3.6 billion ($4.34 billion) into its troubled hedge fund this week were lured with substantially lower fees than those typically charged by the Wall Street bank. Goldman yesterday said it had agreed to waive its annual management fee for the investors, who contributed $US1billion in new capital to the fund. The investors will pay a performance fee of just 10 per cent on any profits the fund makes once it has achieved a 10per cent return. The fees, much...

Goldman Sachs has been forced to pump $2bn (£993m) into one of its flagship funds in one of the biggest rescue packages since the $3.6bn bail out of Long-Term Capital Management nearly 10 years ago. Comment: Goldman puts its money where its mouth isDebt markets still anxiousTom Stevenson logs on from Massachusetts The investment bank secured a further $1bn investment package from investors including former AIG boss Maurice Greenberg and billionaire Eli Broad after it said its Global Equity Opportunities Fund had slumped more than 30pc last week alone. The fund lost more than $1.4bn in the process as its...

The Dow's Freefall Has Hedge Fund Traders at Goldman Sachs Anxious About Their Future Bonuses Share The sleek interior of one of the world's biggest investment banks reverberated with tension this morning. No business casual here. Suits and ties. It was not a day to take off early for the Hamptons. The financial district office of the Goldman Sachs asset management group, which runs the bank's hedge funds, was busy Friday morning with anxious traders racing down the hallways and hush-hush meetings hashing out strategies to stem losses in their stock holdings. At stake: $40 billion in assets. And more...

LONDON (Reuters) -- Big-money institutional investors have turned more risk averse than at any time since August last year, taking positions they typically do not reverse quickly, State Street data showed Friday. The U.S. financial services firm said its clients, who keep some $13.04 trillion with it as a custodian, have moved into what it called a "safety first" regime. More markets news... European stocks in the red for '07 European banks to inject more cash America's most dangerous jobs Video More video Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs International Bob Hormats gives his analysis of the global credit crunch. Play...

Two Goldman Sachs funds in trouble Computer-driven funds have suffered big losses and selling positions as a result, paper reports. August 9 2007: 3:01 PM EDT NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two Goldman Sachs computer-driven hedge funds have sold some positions after taking a big hit in recent weeks, according to a report published Tuesday. Treasury keeping eye on edgy markets Citing sources familiar with the matter, Goldman's Sachs Global Alpha and its North American Equity Opportunities hedge fund, which are down substantially for the year, have liquidated certain positions the Wall Street Journal reported. Calls to Goldman Sachs were not...

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman of Goldman Sachs, has publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, published reports said. “As a New Yorker, I have seen firsthand the outstanding work Hillary Clinton has done as a senator, proving herself to be a strong and experienced leader,” Mr. Blankfein said in a Clinton campaign statement, Bloomberg reported. It’s hardly the first time the Goldman Sachs head honcho supported Ms. Clinton’s campaign or the Democratic Party.

A new letter purportedly written by the author of terrorist threats against Goldman Sachs claims the whole thing was a hoax "conceived by three misguided teenagers." The four-page letter, hand-printed in red ink on lined paper just like the original batch of 40 letters mailed to media outlets around the country in June, was sent to a Daily News reporter last month and immediately turned over to federal investigators.

An ABC News analysis shows that many of the nation's largest banks and investment firms are leaning towards donating money to top Democratic 2008 presidential candidates rather than to Repbulicans. Wall Street — often thought of as a bastion of Republican ideals — is leaning toward Democrats these days. As campaign contributions pour in to the 2008 presidential race, employees at some of the nation's largest banks and investment firms are deciding more often than not to write out big checks to Democratic candidates. Workers at Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and elsewhere are putting their cash behind Hillary Clinton,...

Maybe it's just me, but I noticed "tonal" similarities in the recent Goldman Sachs threats, and the 2001 Anthrax letters. What do you think ?

I Told You So: The Muslim Doctor Terrorists Are No Surprise; Revealing Muslim Doctors' Oath By Debbie Schlussel It's the doctors, stupid! I'm not sure why everyone is so shocked that all eight suspects in the attempted British terrorist attacks of last week are Medical Doctors (and that ALL eight suspects are tied to the British national healthcare system, the NHS). Readers of this site aren't surprised by the doctor terrorists. First, Do Harm As you'll recall, in my mid-May column, "When Your Doctor is a Muslim: Medical Terrorism Comes to America," I wrote about many of the doctors who've...

(AP) JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- The FBI is investigating anonymous threats against the Goldman Sachs investment firm contained in handwritten letters warning that "hundreds will die." Sent to newspapers across the country, the letters threaten the investment titan, warning, "We are inside. You cannot stop us." The Star Ledger of Newark reported the letters were all mailed from Queens, and signed "A.Q., U.S.A." One of the letters, postmarked June 27, was received recently by the newspaper. Goldman Sachs is based in New York, and has offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other cities. About 3,000 people work in...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS - News) barely managed to show a rise in quarterly profit as a sharp drop in fixed income trading revenue offset record investment banking fees and strong equities income. The world's largest investment bank by profit and market value on Thursday said net earnings rose 1 percent to $2.33 billion, or $4.93 a share, in the second quarter ended on May 25, from $2.29 billion, or $4.78 a share, a year earlier. While earnings were about 4 percent higher than the analysts' average estimate of $4.76 a share, the results paled...

The old admonition, "When something seems too good to be true, it probably is," virtually screams from accounts of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to "privatize" the California Lottery. Actually, to give credit where it's due, it's a Goldman Sachs/Lehman Brothers proposal; the governor is the pitch-man. The details are subject to negotiation, but the deal works something like this: The state turns over the California Lottery and monopoly control over lottery gambling in California to a private consortium (led by Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, could it be?) for the next 40 years. In exchange, the consortium pays the state...

EMERGING MARKETS REPORT: Goldman Sachs: China At Risk Of "market Euphoria" By Polya Lesova NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- China's booming A-share market could turn into a bubble if speculation among exuberant retail investors is not curbed, Goldman Sachs warned Thursday, as the Shanghai Composite Index hit yet another intraday record high. "Market trading statistics, liquidity indicators, and anecdotal evidence all point to optimistic, if not exuberant, sentiment in the domestic market," said Thomas Deng, analyst at Goldman Sachs, in a Thursday research report. "As speculation continues to be nurtured among domestic retail investors, we see genuine risks of market...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Pfizer Inc.'s former chief executive, Henry A. McKinnell, who was forced into an early retirement in part because of investor anger about his rich retirement benefits, will get every penny of it and more, a new regulatory filing shows. McKinnell's package, which the company disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday, totals more than $180 million. It includes an estimated $82.3 million in pension benefits, $77.9 million in deferred compensation, and cash and stock totaling more than $20.7 million. The total value could grow to almost $200 million if McKinnell gets a...

Jasper Gerard reveals how City high flyers will spend their £8.4 billion in bonuses They make Chelsea footballers look socially disadvantaged. They are the galacticos of the City, the unacceptable wallets of capitalism, the merchant bankers who make other merchant bankers jealous. Yep, Goldman Sachs. No wonder Champagne corks popped with extra fizz at the works party this week. The firm has just announced bonuses of £8.4 billion, greater than the GDP of many countries. Its 26,000 toilers will typically find, nestling with tangerines in their Christmas stocking, bonuses of £320,000; it has been rumoured that 25 Goldman stars have...

Capping the most profitable year on record for a Wall Street investment firm, Goldman Sachs reported a 93% increase in profits during its recently ended 4th quarter. By the numbers, Goldman's net income advanced to $3.15 billion, or $6.59 a share, up from $1.63 billion, or $3.35, during the year earlier period, surpassing the average Bloomberg estimate of EPS of just $6.17.gs Goldman also outperformed Thomson Financial consensus estimates which were for EPS of $6.04 on revenue of $8.96 billion. For the quarter, revenue increased by a much more moderate 47% - to $9.41 billion from $6.4 billion a year...

THE Democrat electoral victory in the US last week was greeted with widespread applause through much of the world, especially in Taiwan. But in China, where the election campaign attracted little interest, it is now starting to arouse widespread concern about the future relationship between the two great powers.

Liberal blogger David R. Mark recently wrote, “Those that call themselves ‘compassionate conservatives’ would never think to touch their fat-cat supporters. It’s much easier to spin the ‘economic benefits’ of helping huge corporations fatten their bottom lines.� Liberal academic Thomas Frank, in his book What’s The Matter With Kansas?, claims that the corporate world “wields the Republican Party as its personal political sidearm.� Both Mark and Frank express a common view that corporations are major funders of the political right, and that when corporations make contributions to nonprofit advocacy groups they give to groups on the right because those groups...

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the blue chip investment bank, wants a Netherlands man to change the name of a sex-themed Web site called goldmansex.com. Goldman Sachs last week submitted a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) arguing the Internet domain name goldmansex.com would cause confusion and contained links to objectionable "adult" material. The NAF mediates corporate disputes including those over Internet domain names. Goldman Sachs and goldman.com are registered, the bank said. Goldman Sachs spokesman Peter Rose said the bank would not comment beyond its NAF filing. But Rob Muller, 32, who founded goldmansex.com and is its sole employee,...

A former junior banker at Merrill Lynch yesterday confessed to of a brazen insider-trading scheme that also enlisted an exotic dancer, a retired Croatian seamstress, a New Jersey mailman and moles inside a BusinessWeek print shop..........the Trans-Atlantic stock fraud scam that racked up $6.7 million in ill-gotten gains....... Trading on tips from the young banker on six big mergers netted $6.4 million of the illicit profits, making it by far the most lucrative scheme concocted by the insider-trading ring's masterminds, Eugene Plotkin, 27, and David Pajcin, 29. The pair, who met while they both worked at Goldman Sachs, recruited Shpigelman...

9:29 [GS] Goldman Sachs pays Paulson $18.7 million bonus 9:28 NJ budget compomise fails, threatening casinos: WSJ 9:28 NJ governor, legislators work to avert state shutdown: WSJ 9:28 Without state budget, NJ casinos will close Wednesday: WSJ 9:28 NJ state government already shutting down: WSJ

As the Senate Finance Committee considers President Bush’s nomination of Henry Paulson to be the next secretary of the Treasury, the question is not whether he will be confirmed. That seems assured, as senators in both parties behave like star-struck groupies in the presence of a Wall Street “master of the universe,” whose net worth, from his time as a senior executive of Goldman Sachs, is estimated to be on the order of $600 million. Rather, the question is: Will any of his Senate interlocutors even bother to explore the nominee’s troubling fifteen-year ties to Communist China and the potential...

At this point in our history, is what we really need a Treasury Secretary who is a pedigreed "Friend of China?" That is a term the Communist Chinese apply to individuals who have proven their affinity for the People's Republic by service of one kind or another. Communist China arguably has no better or more powerful friend in the whole of the Western world than the man President Bush has just appointed to be this nation's chief financial officer: Henry Paulson. Mr. Paulson has made a very successful career, an immense personal fortune and an astounding financial empire at the...

Treasury Secy. Snow to resign. Being replaced by Goldman Sachs Chari, Henry Paulson.

The US dollar fell sharply on Tuesday as Hank Paulson, Goldman Sachs’ chief executive, was named as the new US Treasury secretary, replacing the increasingly pressurised John Snow. Mr Paulson has extensive links with China and some saw him as potentially better equipped than his predecessor to encourage Beijing, and the wider emerging Asian bloc, to allow a faster appreciation of the renminbi in order to help reduce global economic imbalances.....

The Senate should reject President Bush’s nomination of Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson for Treasury secretary. Under Paulson’s leadership, Goldman Sachs participated in ethically, and perhaps legally, questionable business practices. Paulson also supports the economy-killing Kyoto Protocol and has demonstrated little respect for private property rights. On the ethical front, Paulson has refused to answer questions about his apparent use of Goldman Sachs’ corporate assets to advance his personal interests. In 2002, Paulson used at least $35 million of shareholder money to help environmental groups stop a “sustainable forestry� project in Tierra del Fuego, Chile. Environmental groups had delayed the...

Five years ago Al Gore seemed a bit washed up. The Florida fiasco left him looking more like a sore loser than a martyr. He wasn't doing well financially, either. He had a reported minimum net worth of only $800,000 the year before the election.But now, glory, honor and money are all his. Gore, 58, is the hero of a scary documentary on environmental decay (An Inconvenient Truth, due to be released across the U.S. soon after its May 24 opening in New York and Los Angeles). He has recently been the cover boy for Wired and Vanity Fair,...

NEW YORK - Two Goldman Sachs employees made more than $6.7 million through insider trading by enlisting an analyst who provided information on Wall Street deals and a forklift driver who leaked copies of a market-moving magazine, authorities said Tuesday. Prosecutors called it one of the most extensive insider trading cases in decades, and it has no shortage of salacious details. The case includes allegations that the men tried to get strippers to coax stock tips from investment bankers who had inside knowledge of pending mergers and acquisitions. "We've never seen before a case involving so many different attempts to...