the funds hit a perfect storm. who would have predicted that there would be NO market for the securities. so you are holding unmarketable long the long position. and take 10 years just to breakeven the short well the insurers went bust. lose on both long and short.
"Feds charge Bear pair with fraud over $1.4bn sub-prime collapse" http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/20/corporatefraud.banking Although I feel bad for the investors, I wish the FED had not bailed out Bear Stearns... Stearns always had a reputation for taking on extra risk and now with the combination of these managers, what a surprise huh?
I still think its strange that the managers of a top Wall Street Firm were so sketchy. I would expect managers of smaller hedge funds to do something like this (lie), especially those off-shore ones with US investors. But big firms such as Merril and Morgan Stanley pay so much money for auditing/transparency purposes that top management had to know what was going on and should be responsible too. I can't believe they let it slide. On the other hand, I can see how I can be wrong. Everyone thinks Goldman is completely unethical, but nothing happens to them. They also have a lot of political clout and connections in general though (i.e. Bernanke). I still have a hard time believing that only those two managers knew what was going on.
Are you kidding? Goldman is a de facto branch of the U.S. government. It's a revolving door, both ways, set up to literally control U.S. monetary policy (and maybe even foreign policy, hmmmm?). And how can you deny their success? You can't. They're brilliant. They're beyond reproach in the media and SEC/law enforcement circles...the golden child of WS analysts...a profit mill (mainly enriching their own). When a company such as Goldman is able to reap monopoly-like profits, and influence the fiscal policy of the largest nation on the face of the earth, and you hear scant evidence or even accusations of any unclean hands, they're the ultimate masters of the universe. There's a rumor floating around K Street that in 20 years, U.S. money will be inscribed with 'In Goldman Sachs We Trust.'
I don't know why you are so surprised. I admitted in my post that Goldman seemingly has a lot of political connections and may get away with unethical business practices. That being said, Goldman is still a public company that can ultimately be disciplined if need be. Look at Enron... it was also seemingly untouchable at one point, especially when Bush entered office. No one financial company is going to be "a de facto branch of branch of the U.S. government" as you put it forever. Times will change and so will the companies that will be in power. I guess that my point is that their will be a time when another company will take Goldman's place. No company is untouchable! de facto branch of government = FED (better example lol)
I think it's great they started with these two liars. But why only go after hedge fund guys? Every Wall Street professional that lied to investors about facts should be prosecuted. IMO the Feds should go after Dick Fuld and Erin Callan from Lehman next for lying blatantly to investors with malicious intent.
I don't care if they throw every fallstreet hedge fund manager behind bars. Aren't these the kind of things we see at market bottoms?