Goldman Sachs execs still don’t get it

Bad day for Goldman, worse day for Republicans. They do not get that voters are more angry at the Wall Street bankers who destroyed the economy than they are at Congress. No amount of spin will hide the fact that they are siding with the banks on this serious issue.

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Barbara, do you really think it wasn’t a legal or PR strategy? C’mon! These guys were well rehearsed by the lawyers. Nobody is going to admit anything that may have the word “liability” attached to it.

The hearings are a farce, with the sole purpose: Congressional posturing. If the government thinks laws were broken, there should be trials. If no laws were broken, but the purpose is to gather information, this could be done far more efficiently and effectively in private discussions, with no potential liability.

There’s no business like show business. Some folks love to be outraged.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

I think Congressional hearings can be an important deterrent. We’re still talking about the 1994 hearing in which seven tobacco CEOs said they didn’t think nicotine was addictive. I think there was plenty of room today to talk about systemic breakdown without admitting personal liability.

The Goldman Sachs execs were destined to look bad, no matter what they said. Either:
1) they admit they made mistakes, and their admissions are used against them, in court or through legislation.
or 2) they don’t admit mistakes (on legal counsel, of course) and look evasive or clueless, which builds the case for tighter Wall St. regulation.

Barbara:

Let’s take another perspective on this. The Goldman folks may not “get it” as you have contended, and I agree with you, but they actually DON’T CARE ! By the way, NEITHER DOES ANYONE IN CONGRESS!! Today was all for show. The congress has taken so much bribe money that the only thing they can do is scream, holler, blow off steam and go home for dinner.

NOTHING will happen from this hearing… NOTHING.

There used to be a time where LYING TO CONGRESS and blatant commission of FRAUD was actually punishable by imprisonment – consequences.. No more.. These Goldman folks will fly home tonight on their private planes, drink champagne, have a big dinner with their legal team, and all have a big laugh at our expense.

Now that they have landed us in a $600 TRILLION DOLLAR GRAVE, our influence in the world, in any form of financial influence, will probably be restored in say 100, maybe 150, years… In the mean time we can only watch and learn to eat cardboard hamburgers like the rest of the third world.

What do Goldman Sachs need to apologize for…this is business as usual. Congress will drag this dog and pony show for as long as they can get face time, attempt to garner constituent approval and hope to influence future vote for themselves. In the mean time congress is dressing-down the very people who have helped them get into office. If penalties and fines are imposed it will be paid by taxpayer dollars. The only real losers here–once again–will be the American taxpayer. We will once again be ripped-off not only by Sachs, but by an inept congress.

Oh, the get it. They engineered it. They just don’t give a sh*t.

*they

Took the words right out of my mouth BarBara! Not literally of course.

You rock!

Many former Goldman Sachs employees hold top positions in the Obama administration including:
1. Mark Patterson, a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, who is the chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (himself the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York).
2. Reuben Jeffery III, former managing partner at Goldman Sachs, who holds the post of undersecretary of state for economic, business, and agricultural affairs.
3. Neel Kashkari, former Goldman Sachs vice president, who is the assistant secretary of the treasury for financial stability, responsible for administering the TARP funds.
4. Dianna Farrell, former financial analyst at Goldman Sachs, who serves as deputy director of the National Economic Council.
5. Probably many others at lower levels

Obama also received $960000 in donations from Goldman Sachs during the 2008 election campaign and Obamas former White house council, Greg Craig was just hired by Goldman Sachs to handle their political and legal challenges (defend/cover up suspicious business activities/associations).
Do you think that the Obama administration with its close associations with Goldman Sachs will be investigated for its possible connection to this current scandal?

If Obama was serious about financial reform, he would insist on two key congressional committee chairman to step down; Sen. Dodd and Rep. Frank. As we all know these two congressmen were the top government villains in this below prime mortgage debacle. Do Obama and his Congress have no shame, by allowing these two culprits to continue as chairs of the key finance committees chartered to discover and clean up the business mess in this country when they were instrumental (Forced the Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Government agencies to provide undocumented loans to unqualified low income constituents to assure democratic votes in future elections) in creating the housing bubble that resulted in the infamous business/financial melt down?

How about fabulous fab toures during the hearing? I couldn’t help but laugh everytime he spoke…especially when he introduced himself.

The one thing I saw was there seemed to be no allegiance to any institution or community other than themselves as individuals. They covered their own asses, but at the expense of Goldman Sachs, shareholders, the financial industry, and perhaps even the country.

IMHO, they reflected basically the worse of what it means to be human.

They get it and they “banked” on it! So now we go from the old way of 0 C’s of credit, now back to the 7 C’s and what up to later? 10-13 “C’s” It’s horrible that the risk return tradeoff of these banks paid off for them and passed the risk and buck onto “the people.”

The hearings are also a joke! Leaf, leaf….leaf ad infinitium as if there was infinite time just lying around! No, even Goldman cannot concoct time on that scale even with their rigged models, however it can ‘model’ dupes like Levin. Who in my opinion is no McFadden which is what we all need now, not then!

12They get it and they “banked” on it! So now we go from the old way of 0 C’s of credit, now back to the 7 C’s and what up to later?

http://www.wordpressthemescity.com/

Goldman Sachs and Republicans are in cahoot together.

When are the TRUE responsible parties going to finally step-up and admit their role. The TRUE culprits in the current financial crisis is ALL OF US. Not “THEM”.

Goldman Sachs, and all other financial institutions, gave us exactly what we wanted. A way to get rich quick.

Greed & Fear are what have always driven financial decisions. Those who had made poor choices & had questionable or bad credit demanded a slice of the real estate pie during the bubble. Legislators eased up lending so that these poor souls could have a chance too.

Everyone was happy until the party ended. Bank workers were happy, mortgage brokers where happy, contractors were happy, real estate owners were happy, realtors were happy, home improvement stores were happy, HGTV was happy, etc.

Enough of the “us and them” mentality.

The problem is Wall Street thinks the Goldman execs did a good job. Dick Bove just said GS is a buy all the way to 200 and Larry Kudluw, Jim Cramer and the rest of the wall street gang were singing GS’s praise all night long yesterday. They just don’t get it.

I despise these ridiculous commentaries on what people “think” is going on. “spectacular theater?” “run to the restroom to vomit?” Come on. Is this serious commentary?

Buyers looking to purchase homes ought to know exactly what they can and cannot afford. The government and public need to start looking at themselves to have reform. What happened to honesty? Wall Street reform is a joke, just like the timing of these accusations.

LOL at those who are still blaming the house buyers for the credit crisis and ignoring the fact that it was wall street that bundled those mortgages into derivatives that multiplied the loses. Without derivatives trading what transpired during the last few years would have just been a housing bubble and not a credit crisis. And it should have been wall street that should have known exactly what they were dealing with and should have paid the penalty. Blankenfein and other TBTF CEO’s getting millions of dollars in salary and bonuses is a travesty.

I understand the cynicism. I truly do. But I have to say, watching the various hearings being held by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has, to a small extent, restored my faith in Congress. Yes, there are a lot of ill-informed partisans running around. But there are also some stand-up people who are really trying to understand what happened and what might help in the future. I’d hold up Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman, whom my colleague Michael Scherer has written about, as a prime example.

Actually, it is serious commentary. At some point down the road we are going to again start believing in the myth of self-regulation. At that point we should all come back and read this post and remember that institutions forge human behavior. The best system will always be one of checks and balances because people take on the beliefs of their organizations and even deep traumas apparently don’t change that.

I respectfully disagree. When these Mortgage Backed Securities were selling like hot-cakes, and I was receiving offers for ridiculous mortgages I could never afford I can remember asking many times, not just WHO was stupid enough to take on such high-risk unaffordable mortgages, but WHO was offering them in the first place.

You see, there’s a minority in this country that DO try to live within their means, and yes it its very upsetting when you see the hucksters getting bailed out, homeowners getting bailed out, your 401K become near-worthless, and then folks such as yourself telling me I need to accept some responsibility!?! Not gonna happen. We’d like to see Wall Street suffer along with Main Street. Quid pro quo, that’s all.

The Epicurean Dealmaker had an interesting commentary on this a while back (http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/2010/01/im-dancing-as-fast-as-i-can.html). He said simply that Wall Street has no interest in such introspection. Now, I agree with very little of what TED says (he is too involved in this culture to be in any sense unbiased), but I think he has a point. Expecting the Squid or anyone else on Wall Street to attempt to understand causality is a lost cause.

And great work yet again, Barbara.

Thanks, Curmudgeon. As always, it’s a pleasure.

dicktracy150, I’m not blaming the home buyers for the credit crisis. All I’m saying is people should look at themselves and know what their own limitations are. Let’s face it, Wall Street is in the business of making money.

kevyfresh, sure home buyers who exceeded their credit are partially to blame. Wall street is in the business of making money but they are also supposed to keep our economy moving by having money to lend. In simplistic terms, by making and losing exorbitant bets on home prices on borrowed money, Wall street has set back the global economy by several years and their mistakes have resulted in millions of people losing their jobs. If wall street is only in the business of making money thus putting the rest of the economy at risk then the simple solution is to nationalize or severely regulate banks so that they have sufficient money to lend and keep you and me employed.

Goldman Sachs correctly recognized the impending problem earlier than other firms, and took corrective actions. If other firms had done the same, the recession would have been far less severe, and the TARP cost significantly less. I listened to the hearings, and did not hear any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Goldman Sachs.

Who were the real culprits responsible for the recession?

The liars: Those who lied about their income or credit status on their mortage application.

The greedy: The Americans who had mortages on expensive homes far beyond what they could afford.

The incompetent:
- The Congress that failed to legislate sensible banking regulations, and encouraged “home ownership” at all costs.
- The regulators who watched porn while the economy was about to collapse.
- Poorly managed corporations – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Lehman Brothers etc. They took on too much debt and could not competently manage risk.
- The rating agencies who failed to recognize the risk of the high risk mortage based securities.

I’m not sure what people expected from the ‘grilling’ meted out to Goldman Sachs execs… Do you really think they would raise their right hand and say ‘Yes Senator, we did it, we foisted all this toxic crap on unsuspecting investors, took their money and laughed all the way to the Hamptons”??? No, they did their best imitation of the Governor in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”, dancing their little sidestep. So, of course there was no ‘evidence’ of Goldman Sachs’ wrongdoing during this little dog and pony show.

GS certainly played their part in the current economic mess, as did every other investment bank, hedge fund and big bank in this and other countries. The ‘tech wreck’ was starving the financial beast and they needed fresh meat, hence the housing bubble. And it didn’t help that the revolving door has created an incestuous relationship with Congress and the Executive Branch.

Anyone who doesn’t think GS and their peers didn’t do anything wrong is either naive or a shill. Glass-Steagall anyone?

It is amazing the similiarities between the CDO mess of the past decade and the junk bond mess of the 1980′s. Michael Milken of the investment bank Drexel Burnham was able to package very risky junk bonds in such a way that he actually sold them to financial institutions. Very much like selling subprime CDO’s to banks today.

From the view of society, the Goldman Sachs (and the Drexel Burnham’s) of the world need to be reined in or society will incur the costs of cleaning up the mess they make. But the ultimate cause is the willingness of a lot of people to believe they can get higher yields without any additional risk. The risks may change but there are still risks. “If something appears to be too good to be true, it probably is” is still a good rule to live by. We have a financial literacy problem in this world. Slick salesmen find it too easy to sell manure that has been packaged as candy.