http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/03/who_are_the_aig_counterparties_here_are_some.php market bottomed 3/6/09
what do you expect? With most tuned into CNBC and the like media, GS is always gonna be the broker to be blamed while most of those guys can hardly spell Goldman Sachs much less understand the sources of GS's generated profits and revenues. You now even see some of those retards mentioning Buffett and GS in the same sentence and making both responsible for this mess, of course the consumer has no fault in all this whatsoever. Seriously, what was the point of this poll?
Goldman Sachs criticism In 1986, David Brown was convicted of passing inside information to Ivan Boesky on a takeover deal.[44] Robert Freeman, who was a senior Partner, the Head of Risk Arbitrage, and a protégé of Robert Rubin, was also convicted of insider trading, with his own account and with the firms.[45] On November 11, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that Goldman Sachs, which earned $25 M from underwriting California bonds, had advised other clients to "short" those bonds.[46] Shorting is essentially betting that the state will default on the bonds, which serves to drive up the cost of the issue to the state. In April 2009, Goldman's former in house counsel John Squires, who had moved to law firm Chadbourne & Parke, sent a cease and desist letter to Michael Morgan founder of GoldmanSachs666.com for trademark violation.[47] The site has published negative articles and conspiracy theories on the firm and their alleged involvement in the global financial crisis. [48] Morgan sued Goldman Sachs. Morgan settled his case with Goldman Sachs, on June 19, 2009. As part of the settlement, Morgan agreed to put a disclaimer on the website saying the site was not affiliated with or approved by Goldman.[49][50] During 2008 Goldman Sachs came under criticism for an apparent revolving-door relationship in which its employees and consultants have moved in and out of powerful US Government positions, where there may exist the potential for a conflict of interest. Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was a former CEO of Goldman Sachs. The current chief economic adviser to President Obama, Lawrence Summers, was noted for receiving $5.2 million from hedge fund D.E. Shaw in 2008 and speaking fees (ranging from $45 thousand to $135 thousand per event) from banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch[51] at a time when he was expected to become the most influential financial official in the U.S. Government.[52] Former bank regulator William K. Black, appearing on Bill Moyers Journal on April 3, 2009, accused the financial industry of massive fraud, citing the role Tim Geithner played before being promoted to Treasury Secretary as well as the successful efforts of Alan Greenspan, former Goldman CEO Robert Rubin (Geithner's mentor) and Larry Summers in the late 1990s to block regulation of the financial derivatives market.[53] According to Brooksley Born, former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Summers, Rubin and Greenspan blocked her efforts to regulate the derivatives market, on the grounds that the financial industry were objecting.[54] Born was then succeeded as head of the CFTC by former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Gensler, who stated that he "should have done more to rein in exotic financial instruments that have battered global markets". [55] Additional controversy attended the selection of former Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Geithner, despite President Barack Obama's pledge to limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration.[56] In July 2009, Rolling Stone contributor Matt Taibbi published an article on Goldman Sachs titled, 'The Great American Bubble Machine',[57] where he condemns the company as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money," and going on to assert that Goldman Sachs and similar companies have engineered and then profited off of every economic recession and bubble since The Great Depression. The piece generated much media attention and controversy, reportedly impelling Goldman Sachs to take expensive action to attempt to repair its public image.[58] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs Does anyone believe these guys, are good as they are were solvent during the crisis, not that they didn't have lots of company. The issue to me is privatized gains and socialized losses. http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
Ding! Ding! Ding! Winner winner! That's exactly one of the big problems. I asked asiaprop if Goldman would be liquid today without TARP funds and the AIG bailout, and he won't respond. Goldman should have died along with their bunkmate (that they shanked, in the prison yard, while the so called guards weren't watching), Bear Stearns.
lol, and no other financial services firm has the same history? give me a break. Its ludicrous to single out GS....enough said...
Thanks Asia prop for talking some sense. I gave up a long time ago fighting tin foil hat wearing idiots on the internet.
So Goldman deserved to be bailed out, lest they fail (AIG just adds much grist to the mill - about 18 to 20 billion in Goldman's pocket), but you're okay with Bear Stearns being allowed to fail and Lehman allowed to defacto fail? Speak up, now, ya' hear?
fwiw, GS hires the smartest, most determined, hard working people in the world. These people are not devoid of ethics, they are actual people. Ex-GS persons are exactly the kind of people you want to be working for you in a public service capacity. Get a job at GS and you can get a job anywhere because the whole world knows what kind of people get into GS. The background checks they do on you at GS are absolutely ridiculous. If any company is able to keep lying, thieving, cheating, unethical, corrupt people out of their workforce, its GS. p.s. Not opinion, fact.