Blankfein Says Europe’s Leaders Will Move to Calm Debt Crisis

alot depends on your feeling about the usefulness of "inside information".

 

I would say Blankfein knows/knew the depth of the Greece situation based on the derivative deal back in Feb. Going forward I'm sure he had an opinion on whether the derivative action would produce the intended results (desperate men do desperate things, in this case Greece). GS furthermore had opinion/plan B at the time, (I'm making an assumption to make my arguement work) which is why he made this statement.

 

European leaders agreed to set up an emergency fund to halt the spread of Greece’s fiscal woes, seeking to prevent a sovereign debt crisis from shattering confidence in the 11-year-old euro.

Jolted into action by the sliding currency and soaring bond yields in Portugal and Spain, leaders of the 16 euro countries said the workings of the financial backstop will be hammered out before Asian markets open late tomorrow European time.

“We will defend the euro, whatever it takes,” European Commission President Jose Barroso told reporters early today after the leaders met in Brussels.

Europe’s failure to contain Greece’s fiscal crisis triggered a 4.3 percent drop in the euro this week, the biggest weekly decline since October 2008. And it prompted the U.S. and Asia to rally around in a bid to prevent a global sovereign-debt crisis from pitching the world back into a recession.

“Europe is getting its act together,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “Time will tell if this statement is enough to satisfy the European bond market vigilantes.”

European officials declined to disclose the size of the stabilization fund, to be made up of money borrowed by the European Union’s central authorities with guarantees by national governments. Finance ministers will meet at 3 p.m. tomorrow in Brussels to flesh out the details. A press briefing is scheduled for 6 p.m.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4jFzDH.E7uc&pos=1

Blankfein did know it beforehand. Let's see whether it's going to be 600 billion EUR. I want to see EUR shorts running on Monday...

 

I only took a cursory glance but it would be interesting to see where and how many former GS alumni hold postions in other world gov'ts. I know there's a few but like I said it would be an interesting list

 

Pretty interesting statement coming from him considering Goldman Sachs caused this.