http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/06/goldman-sachs-engineering-every-major.html Enlarge to full screen.
Yeah, Rolling Stone articles.. I've seen some real doozies there, usually they are like conspiracy theories, really gripping but you can't really prove or disprove them or the spin is magnificent in it's sweeping indictment of behavior that may not really have been that bad... interviews with retired mobsters for example, who can prove the interview ever happened? I read one they had that said that all the buildings that were block wall push-ups in Southern California were going to fall in a big earthquake, then we had the Northridge one [7 point frigging 2 before the politicians got it lowered to 6.5] and none of those buildings even got a big crack. Meanwhile, where is the author? Who was the author, I don't remember at all and who is taking the guy to task for an absolute bullshit article that was presented as a research paper almost... Rolling Stone is for airhead music aficionados that live in a math/science/engineering/money free zone... Outside of that, wow what a great read.. it should have been expanded to be a novel really...
I think the whole article is horse manure. Big gov't types need someone to take the blame when there are bubbles. Maybe they could look in the mirror. When bubbles in entire asset classes form, it is almost axiomatic that the biggest financial firms are going to be involved in the action. What else would anyone expect? Lets take the oil bubble for example. The fed keeps interest rates at extremely low levels for an inordinate period of time. If you want to preserve your purchasing power, the thing to do is diversify some of your investments into hard assets. That's what GS helped people do. But no, gov't officials and the kind of people who love big gov't want to pay investors peanuts for their investments, present grave risks to the dollar, and then are outraged that someone might want to get into something that will preserve purchasing power. These big gov't types want you to stay in gov't bonds where they can rob you a little at a time until there's nothing left and then, of course, they'll find a way to blame the free market for that, too. Investors have incentives to do what they do, and many times those incentives are provided by gov't actions. And then people move in herdlike behaviors. Is that GS fault? When the big dogs move in a heard, GS is most likely going to be in the middle of it by virtue of being the biggest and maybe the best. And then a bubble will form, which is what happens when big money piles in. Is GS supposed to stop this from happening? That's ludicrous. Big money will move where it has an incentive to move, and if GS is gone, some other firm will take its place and help the money move. That's all there is to it. But some want GS to be a regulator and stop the market from getting frothy. Only an idiot would take that view, though. Bubbles are going to form, and they only way to stop it is to stop markets from working. Good luck with that, Obamatrons! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand where those policies lead to, although many seem to have the delirious thought that it will be a utopia. Enough, I guess.
Doesn't matter. Don't even have to read it, and probably won't. The Army of Davids is on the march. And there will be no stopping it. SEC will be disbanded. UBS will be indicted, and out of business. Madoff scam will be exposed to its true size...... I figure north of 150billion. Madoff will be outed as a front man only. The kids and niece's husband will be indicted. Wall St. will be crippled by a populist rage. Stuff like this ends with a whimper, but in the meantime, the deer are in the headlights. A lot of this happens before the end of July. I mean, if you 're really honest with yourselves, what else would you expect? Oh, the politicians. Big names will be outed for enabling the collapse.