Senate panel slams Goldman in scathing crisis report
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WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - In the most damning official U.S. report yet produced on Wall Street's role in the financial crisis, a Senate panel accused powerhouse Goldman Sachs of misleading clients and manipulating markets, while also condemning greed, weak regulation and conflicts of interest throughout the financial system.
Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, one of Capitol Hill's most feared panels, has a history with Goldman Sachs (GS.N).
He clashed publicly with its Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein a year ago at a hearing on the crisis.
The Democratic lawmaker again tore into Goldman at a press briefing on his panel's 639-page report, which is based on a review of tens of millions of documents over two years.
Levin accused Goldman of profiting at clients' expense as the mortgage market crashed in 2007. "In my judgment, Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled Congress," he said, reading glasses perched as ever on the tip of his nose.
After having watched 'Inside Job'....I hope to hell the Senate does something about what IMO was blatant fraud and corruption amongst the big banks, especially Goldman.
Absolutely insane that they are being allowed to get away with what they have done.
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I'm not one for conspiracy theorists, but I've spent quite a bit of time reading as much as I could about the whole crash and the bailout that followed, and that is my conclusion as well.
and the large bonuses continue
and Goldman Sacs employees were the biggest contributors to the democratic campaigns
and some executives now have positions with the obama administration.
change?
The bailout still does not compute for me. And how are they ever going to recover? The get stuck on how to cut $34B when the deficit is closer to a trillion?
The bailout still does not compute for me. And how are they ever going to recover? The get stuck on how to cut $34B when the deficit is closer to a trillion?
Especially when that 34 billion is in programs that are minor in terms of what they spend. The Americans would pretty much have to shut down the entire military as well as cut medicare/medicade to get enough money together to be able to pay off their debts.
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Iceland recently had its 2nd referendum on if we should pay back via taxpayers the losses paid by the UK and Netherlands to its people. The first deal was a brutal one and lost with a massive margin, this latest one was quite favorable in comparison yet lost again this time 60/40 margin in a debate heated and filled with threats from moody's the IMF and of course the UK/Netherlands.
Our president, which is an elected position which is a lifetime term, he used a rare right of his to veto the parliament vote which agreed to the recent icesave agreement with a 70% cross party vote, forcing a 2nd referendum, here's his recent almost hostile interview with a finance journalist from the UK:
The Icelandic decision is starting to resonate to other EU nations like Ireland who are regretting bowing down to the banks and financial system, burdening their nations with huge debt to their citizens.
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Unnoticed it may be, but Reykjavik now serves as a very different kind of parable, of how to minimize the misery of financial collapse by ignoring economic orthodoxy. And in those other broke European economies – from Dublin to Athens to Lisbon – politicians and voters are starting to pay attention. After its three biggest banks – 85% of the country's financial system – failed in the same week, Iceland did two remarkable things. First, it let the banks go under: foreign financiers who had lent to Reykjavik institutions at their own risk didn't get a single krona back. Second, officials imposed capital controls, making it harder for hot-money merchants to pull their cash out of the country.
These policies were not just controversial; they represented a two-fingered salute to the polite society of academics and policy-makers who normally lay down the laws on economic disaster management.
Compare Iceland's policies with those followed by another tiny country in the North Atlantic, which also has a banking industry much bigger than its national economy. When the credit crunch came to Dublin, the government decided to underwrite the entire banking industry – including tens of billions of euros of loans made by foreign investors. That landed the country with a debt worth something like €80,000 for every household – a debt that effectively bankrupted the country.
I have a minor-to-modest understanding of Icelandic events, and it seems to me that there are a few government officials and/or regulators that should joining their banker friends in jail.
I'm not one for conspiracy theorists, but I've spent quite a bit of time reading as much as I could about the whole crash and the bailout that followed, and that is my conclusion as well.
Add me to that list.
I don't believe that there is some "Illuminati Type" group pulling strings, but I have no doubt that banks (and their ex-coworkers in the government) understood full well the incredible damage that would be caused by the inevitable crash.
I actually happen to believe that there was a "As long as I walk away from it rich" mentality, and that the bailouts really were an afterthought. Does anyone really believe that the CEO of Bear Stearns actually give two-craps that the company went under? He walked away with his millions, laughing....
I have a minor-to-modest understanding of Icelandic events, and it seems to me that there are a few government officials and/or regulators that should joining their banker friends in jail.
The former Prime Minister is going to be indicted, as well as the regulators office which was too cozy with the banks is under investigations with the newly (well 2yrs ago) formed special prosecutors office.
One of the big bankers was just recently successful at not being prosecuted in NYC, but he´s now going to face the courts in Iceland so hopefully something happens to him. There is a lot of them off scott free so far, the prosecutors office is being taken to task by the public as they are growing impatient of the slow moving indictments.
We did just recently imprison, and more importantly take away the money of an insider trader who found out 2-3 days before the crash what was coming and sold off all his shares in his bank.
Just recently a Bank CEO here in Iceland was caught parking in a handicap stall in her new Mercedes SUV in front of a skating rink. The story made headline news and she' had to apologize to the country.
The salaries of the wealthiest in Iceland is under constant scrutiny in the financial sector, and if the 'financial vikings' as they were called are seen in public they most often hear it very loudly from the public, no one has physically assaulted one yet but I'm sure it will come.
Most of the cowards are hiding in the UK, Europe and even one in Canada. Most of them only coming back when called by the prosecutors office, and then the media hounds them during their visit.
But like most people I'm skeptical, I'll wait till there is some actual repercussions for their actions.
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That movie Inside Job sure did a good job of exposing Wall Street for the role it had in the financial crisis. To those who don't know - long story short, a bunch of people, including those at Goldman, were so motivated by greed they knowlingly let the economic crisis hit in order to continue their accumulation of personal material wealth. Ties with the US government didn't help this situation either. A small group of people got massively rich at the expense of not just millions, but perhaps billions of people.
Having gone through business school and now out in the business world, its amazing to see how much some people are motivated by material wealth. It's rather depressing, actualy.
It's called lobbying. These massive consortiums are able to pour 100s of millions of dollars into influencing the opinions of congressmen and senators.
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I'm not one for conspiracy theorists, but I've spent quite a bit of time reading as much as I could about the whole crash and the bailout that followed, and that is my conclusion as well.
I'm pretty well in there as well.
To me it breaks down like this; either they knew exactly what they were doing and a very small (relatively) group of people decided that they could get wealthy beyond their wildest dreams at the expense of a great number of people and at the same time do some very extensive damage not just to the American economy, but the very fabric of the American society. And they were cool with that.
Or; the raging incompetence in our society means we're all screwed anyways.
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Senate panel slams Goldman in scathing crisis report
