Comments on: SEC tries to ride Goldman back to credibility

By: Gotthardbahn

Gotthardbahn — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:54:13 +0000

Something really doesn’t add up here. Quite aside from the questionable timing – as Mr. P noted – of the charges against Goldman, it now appears that two other politicians facing difficult elections or by-elections in the coming weeks are now piling onto this bandwagon. Gordon Brown, facing near-certain defeat in the UK general elections, is reportedly ‘shocked, shocked’ over this whole business and has renewed his call for increased taxation and regulation of the world’s banks, while Angela Merkel of Germany, facing an awkward by-election so close that it compelled her to nearly scuttle an aid package for Greece, is now demanding an investigation of Goldman’s actions in Germany. This is all quite aside from Mr. Obama’s trying to get his stalled financial regulation package through the Senate, so it does seem awfully convenient for a number of embattled politicians. Perhaps I’m wrong, and maybe Goldie is indeed guilty of these allegations, but given the SEC’s track record and apparent turf-defending in recent months, as outlined by Mr. P, it’s hard not to be somewhat sceptical of this whole Goldman business.

By: DanHess

DanHess — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:11:49 +0000

Well there are a number of things that Goldman and other banks aren’t facing charges for that have been very ethically questionable:

* Bailouts of AIG CDSs at 100 cents on the dollar
* Ability to borrow from the Fed nearly interest free, which amounts to outright theft from American taxpayers since this money can be lent right back to taxpayers at great profit.
* Use of high frequency trading to gain information on the trading activities of other entities, thereby front-running them
* Collecting collateral on CDSs from institutions that were failing, jumping ahead of all other creditors
* Hiding losses from shareholders by avoiding marking present assets to market, while paying themselves large bonuses.
* A quantitative easing program where the Fed mainly buys bank assets rather than distributes the money to the American people.
* Massive re-risking after the too-big-to-fail principle has been established.
* Risking up between reporting periods and scaling back just in time for reporting in a manner that while probably legal is deeply deceptive.

In terms of dodging charges, Goldman is batting nearly 1000.

By: DanHess

DanHess — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:15:02 +0000

Some folks act shocked, shocked that Goldman could be accused of fraud.

Well there are a number of things that Goldman and other banks aren’t facing charges for that have been very ethically questionable:

In terms of dodging charges, Goldman is batting nearly 1000.

By: Benny_Acosta

Benny_Acosta — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:24:04 +0000

I really hope the SEC is serious about this. It would be sad to find out that this was just an attempt to make an example of one company in order to appease the public.

I still have not learned of any good reason for the glass-steagall act being repealed. If I understand it correctly, this act erected a wall between the activities of commercial banks and investment banks in order to protect the money of depositors on the commercial side of the banking industry. What was the benefit of removing this restriction? Who did it benefit? And if it was a mistake to remove this restriction then why is it not being put back in place?

Yes there needs to be criminal prosecution. But there also needs to be some repair work done on our regulatory system. Not the least of which is a rule that forbids a person working for the SEC to enter into employment or consultation with any of the firms they are responsible for regulating.

As it stands, players from Wall Street and Washington play musical chairs all the time. Our regulatory system has to be focused more on behavior than on rules. And government MUST also be transparent. The people must be allowed to inspect the rule making process. And for God’s sake please put civics and economics back into our k-12 school system. We need educated participants in our economy not mindless worker sheep.

By: KipK

KipK — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:58:20 +0000

This recent conviction of GS is the right thing happening to this country and am glad that this administration has made its “national interest” to bring the thieves &/or criminals to justice.
One reason that makes this country the envy of the world is how justice prevails. When most of this rhetoric was noticeable in the lower courts for your common citizen of the past (and still does today), but since this economic disaster, it is starting to show in the higher circles of both citizens, as well as corporations. Someone (President Obama) or a group amongst us has to stand-up and declare “enough is enough”.
Let’s bring back the US to what used to be this envy of the world.
I’m sick and tired of all those who care as much of the country as to what they are as a Democrat or a Republican. When will our pride show? If 9/11 brought us together as a national interest, this economic downturn should be considered no less.
Lets start to recognize who has a conflict of interest against the national interest. Hold those citizens’ or corporations’ feet to the flame, to stem this evil from our lives.
Lets start talking and discussing of “our Administration”, rather than “Democratic Administration”.
The common citizen who is affected the most, doesn’t care whether we are a capitalist or a socialist society, so long as his hard work pays off to put bread on the table. He then can look towards his role to support those crooks within the society who have lived a parasitic life.
I hope this President is resilient upto the end, to stand up and clean this “old house”.

By: DOUBLEDIPPER

DOUBLEDIPPER — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:44:58 +0000

This was the biggest crime of all time selling worthless paper zero $ derivatives around the world.Criminal charges should apply here just as in the madoff case. Scams are prosecuted, premeditated criminals are locked up folks…..

By: Kina

Kina — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 10:48:56 +0000

There has been quite a lot of sanctioned/ignored corruption going on.

The SEC is tossing off the shackles of the Bush administration where corruption was allowed and the mainstay of all things financial.

One can only hope the SEC is aiming for a zero tolerance, canary in the mine approach in the long term.

This current case sounds fairly open and shut. Not much Goldman Sachs can do to cover this up except jawbone non stop. But it aint us they have to convince, but a judge and jury.

Problem is that this is a fairly easy to understand fraud, people wont be confused with science on this one.

Designing a product to deliberately fail then selling it so you can collect commission and the insurance when it fails is straight forward. Even worse letting a client design the most toxic package they could, then selling it to someone else as a top notch gold plated deal, so when it fails they could make even more on the insurance… pretty low.

Wonder if there will be more whistle blowers….. from GS and JP Morgan and the others.

There should be criminal charges from this, and this is what will tell us how serious the SEC is. If they get a civil conviction and dont go for the criminal, then they are just playing a game of make believe regulators.

There is also the matter of gold and silver manipulation by GS and JP Morgan that regulators have been ignoring. These are criminal activities that should be investigated and prosecuted.