Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer David Viniar is no oracle. Veterans of Goldman’s quarterly conference calls know well his stock response to almost every probing question: “I never try to predict the future.” 
    Incredibly, the bank’s top number-cruncher did just that today when he boldly made the following prediction:
    “The subprime business continues to be weak. We have not seen the bottom in the market. There will be more pain felt by people as it works its way through system,” Viniar told reporters in a conference call.
     He even elaborated: “I think there is pain yet to be felt in some structured vehicles and potential default rates. I don’t think we’re through.”
    The U.S. subprime mortgage market has suffered rising defaults and generated losses for lenders over the past year,  the result of a slowing housing market and rising interest rates. The downturn revealed which lenders had played fast and loose with lending standards, while more than two dozen firms shut down or sold off their businesses.
    Viniar still maintained that subprime woes have not spread to other classes of mortgages or other debt markets, as was widely feared earlier this year. “So far we still have not seen any contagion,” he said. 
    Indeed Wall Street’s senior ranks for months have urged investors to remain calm. That worries about the subprime mortgage market were overdone.
    Yet subprime indeed led to some sub-optimal results among Wall Street’s biggest banks this week. 
    Uptown rivals Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns reported declined in fixed income results amid mortgage woes. Goldman, which typically blows away analyst estimates, said subprime weakness contributed to a 24 percent plunge in fixed-income trading revenue and the disappointing 1 percent growth in second quarter profit. Goldman’s shares fell 3 percent.
    Perhaps those subprime fears weren’t overblown after all.