GS receives billions and as it stated larger revenue was generated from trading. No kidding. They receive billions, manipulate the market and now would like to pay back the funds so as not to have any auspices over them. GS whole scam from Paulson - AIG - Bernanke until todays creative accounting is criminal. If this happened in China the only thing left of them would be the blood stain on the wall. Land of the free, Right and we killed Saddam, no wonder the imagine of the USA is tainted around the world.
Looks like I was wrong about this Q being the one with phony numbers. According to GS the AIG benefit kicked before that, likely in Q4 They earnings ex-items for Q4 last year was about -$16 a share if you back out the AIG benefit
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/04/how-to-puff-up-earnings-goldman-sachs-style/ Leave it to the clever boys at Goldman Sachs to turn dross into gold: They have come up with a way to hide massive losses so clever, it requires special comment: The Orphan Month. Yesterday, we noted that the bulk of their profits had come from AIG transfer payments â the theft from taxpayers AIG 100% payouts funded via bailout monies that saw Goldie as one of the largest recipients. Floyd Norris notes that most of the AIG effect was in December. âFor the first quarter, the total A.I.G. effect on earnings was, in round numbers, zero.â How is it possible that this occurred? Isnât GS on a December to February calendar? Well, there is a small asterisk about that. It seems that GS is moving from a December to a quarterly calendar. Meaning their latest Q is January thru March. But what of December, with all t he AIG monies and the comparison to the strong December 2007 and all? In a word, Orphaned: Goldmanâs 2008 fiscal year ended Nov. 30. This year the company is switching to a calendar year. The leaves December as an orphan month, one that will be largely ignored. In Goldmanâs news release, and in most of the news reports, the quarter ended March 31 is compared to the quarter last year that ending in February. The orphan month featured â surprise â lots of writeoffs. The pre-tax loss was $1.3 billion, and the after-tax loss was $780 million. Would the firm have had a profit if it stuck to its old calendar, and had to include December and exclude March? Truly astounding . . . the word Chutzpah simply does not do it justice . . .
Goldman stuffed almost the same amount of writedowns in Dec 2008 alone($1b) as they did in the entire Q1 2009($1.2b). Lots of this are assets held at 'fair value', that is mark to management. The odds that its a coincidence the orphan month got those writedowns by accident must be close to zero
I agree the GS earnings were sketchy at best, but the random price target predictions without reason don't hold much weight.