GoldmanSachs666 Message Board

Fraud*
According to the Collins English Dictionary 10th Edition fraud can be defined as: "deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage".[1] In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate monetary gain
*As defined in Wikipedia

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Goldman Sachs Links and News - April 8 , 2010 - With Larry's Corner

Goldmine Sachs
Forbes
Goldman at its heart is a crowd of overachievers. I like the idea of investing alongside such people. 
GS666 Note:  If you don't care how profits are made.  If morality, legality and ethics don't matter then why not invest in some of the drug cartels in Mexico.  They make a much better return on investtment.  More in Larry's Corner
Goldman Sachs hands 'clean' over AIG
Sydney Morning Herald... 
GS666 Note:  Read the article.  It tells how GS tries to justify their actions.  But something more important is the following - it is the last paragraph:  This has not been written about much and deserves more investigation.
Goldman Sachs also received $US5.6 billion ($A6.04 billion) linked to a special financial vehicle called Maiden Lane III, created in the middle of November 2008 by the US Federal Reserve central bank to unwind high-risk positions taken by AIG.

Goldman Sachs Didn't Profit From Mortgage Defaults, But It Tried ...
Goldman Sachs' Revolving Door - My Les Paul Forums
By geochem1st 
Goldman Seeks Consent to Foreclose on Sawgrass Resort
BusinessWeek
GS666 Note:  If you have been following this story, GS refuses to negotiate and made it clear that it would rather "own the property" then work out terms.  The squid is using it tentacles to draw in as many assets as it can.  Why keep a loan performing when you can screw everyone and own it all?
Goldman Sachs calls for more financial regulation | Washington ...
By Timothy P. Carney  
GS666 Note:  This is a must read to get a simple and quick explanation as to why.  It is for their own benefit, ofcourse.
Is Goldman Sachs too big to fail, or just too big? | Bulk Email ...
By Hello Mails 
Goldman denies betting against mortgage clients - ContraCostaTimes.com
By By Gavin Finch and Ambereen Choudhury Bloomberg.
Goldman's spirited defence
Financial Post
Another Executive Said to Exit Goldman Fund Unit
New York Times (blog)
In what would mark the second high-profile departure in less than month from Goldman Sachs's
GS666 Note:  Hmmmm? Why are so many leaving?  Are they running before the roof caves in?
Goldman Sachs Trader Hedayat Said to Leave Firm (Update1 ...Goldman defends actions, says it did not 'bet against' against clients
Washington Post
Why Is Goldman Sachs Revisiting AIG? « Forbes.com's StreetTalk
By Nathan Vardi
Goldman Sachs Has No Apologies | Economy In Crisis
By Dustin Ensinger


What''s The Problem With Goldman Sachs?

What's the problem with Goldman Sachs?  Why is everybody picking on them?  Why do blogs like this exist to expose them?  Questions being asked by many for many, many months now.
Bad PR, bad press and angry people all over the world.  Some say it is just jealousy and the fact that they make so much money.  But is it?  No, I don't think so.  Certainly there are some who may feel that way but in reality, I personally don't think they are the vast majority are feeling jealousy.


So what is it?  A question I was recently asked by a journalist and a difficult one to answer because there are so many reasons.  The issues go far back in what has come to be known as the "mortgage bubble".  Goldman claims they were not involved or heavily involved in the cause of the bubble, but they were.  What very few know is that they actually owned a mortgage broker/banker company selling both wholesale and retail.  But I will grant them this, that was a very small part of their overall participation in the greatest scam and fraud in the history of the world.  Yes, the mortgage crisis and the ensuing economic collapse worldwide was a scam, a fraud and a ponzi scheme that makes Bernie Madoff pale in comparison.


Yet it is unfair to place all the blame on Goldman Sachs.  All of Wall Street and the Main Street Banks were all complicit in this crime.  Let's take a quick look.


Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers were the main conduits for the creation of loans, the marketing of loans to brokers and to the general public and for the securitization of the loans as Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS).  So it all began on Wall Street.  The loans were created as I said, the underwriting guidelines established there and the investor market for MBS sales began there.  Now all they needed was product - "paper" - mortgage notes to sell to what became an endless market.  You see, the money was made by them not in making the loans but in selling them as securities.


(One important side note here to  quash the belief that mortgage brokers created this mess.  The rules to qualify a person for a mortgage came from Wall Street.  to get more "paper" to sell as securities they kept lowering the guidelines for qualification, down payment and credit score thus more people could qualify for a mortgage - even though they could not really afford it.  But like any good drug dealer they told the people it would be ok.  In fact they actually told the brokers and taught them how to market their products.  An entire industry ws wiped out and the first casualites of unemployment in mass were those in the mortgage industry - brokers, loan officers, processors, underwriters, secretaries, IT people and even the cleaning crews.  They were all sold down the river by Wall Street and company.)


In addition, no conspiracy could be called that without other co conspirators, so let's talk about the three major rating agencies, Standard and Poors, Moody's and Fitch.  They are the credit rating agencies of investments like Equifax, Experian and Trans Union are to the average person.

When these rating agencies rate an investment AAA, it tells the investor that there is little risk in that investment.  A very good inducement to invest when you have a low risk rated issue with a higher then average rate of return.  Why wouldn't you invest?  The problem is - and was admitted openly by an executive of one of the agencies - that the AAA ratings were false.  That no one actually looked at or evaluated these investments.  They just used a "rubber stamp" on them all.  
Now, the admission of one former exec of one company does not necessarily mean that all three rating agencies functioned that way but it is a good bet that they did.  You see, the more issues created for them to rate, the more money they made as well.  These rating agencies were complicit in the collapse.


So where does GS fit in to all this?  Well for one, they are the biggest bond traders on The Street.  After all, that is how they used to make all of their money and they were very good at that.  The Mortage Backed Securities were bonds so one would have to assume that GS was selling them.


Second, is their involvement in  Derivatives  and  Credit Default Swaps (CDS).  Instruments that were important to increasing the investor mrket by offering more protection then even the AAA rating gave.  You see a rating is a piece of mind comfort zone but a CDS is a real "money back guarantee".  

A CDS is basically an insurance policy (it wasn't called insurance so it would  not be regulated) that insures against the MBS issue going bad.  Another inducement for an investor to invest.  Now with a CDS, they not only bought into an investment that was AAA rated but in the very unlikely event that the issue failed (AAA issues could rarely fail) there was now another guarantee that would protect the investor.  Goldman was indeed very instrumental in the creation of CDS and was  - as reported by several media -  very instrumental in getting AIG to issue this "non insurance" without ever investigating the real worth and potential of these bonds.  Only Goldman Sachs could have accomplished that with AIG and they did.


The creation of this "non insurance" insurance allowed the investor community to grow even more around the world.  These investments became so safe looking that whole countries like Iceland invested in them.  Are yo beginning to see the scam here?

So what is it about Goldman Sachs that everyone dislikes?  The fact that they were a major participant in the global economic crisis, that they used the crisis to further enrich themselves with taxpayers money and that they flaunt their ill gotten earnings and salaries to the world with justifications like saying they are "doing God's work".



So what is it about Goldman Sachs that attracts so much negative attention?  Perhaps, the belief that they are the head of the snake that is still crawling through society giving everyone a poison apple to eat.  They are destructive to society around the world. 


Others Seem To Like Them
There are those however - like the reporter in the Forbes story linked above (the first item) - who loves them because they make money for him.  Outside of their trading business, their high profile investors still like them.  Why not, they are still riding the gravy train.  These investors are like smaller serpents following the large one and  simply don't care about morals, ethics or humanitarianism.  Snakes seem to stick together and Goldman appears t be the King Cobra.
Greed has gone beyond greed.  

Greed has crossed over to the illegal side of the law and of morality.  But as with drug cartels, as long as you have a product that gets your senses "high" there will be buyers.  It matters not to drug dealers who lives or dies as a result of their product nor does it matter to those whose drug of choice is the "Almighty Dollar".  When you are making more money then you can spend in ten lifetimes, take all you can take and give nothing back to society but a burned out hull where people are homeless and broke.   There is something terribly wrong with this picture.


And worst of all , there are no real meaningful investigations by law enforcement, government or international forces that can and would punish those guilty.  Madoff is in jail, Michael Milkin went to jail as did so many others whose crimes were far less then those committed on Wall Street in recent years.  There is no justice insight.


What is it about Goldman Sachs?  There has been enough information put out by so many that would - under normal circumstances - prompt high level investigations yet there are none.  
This raises yet another other question - that seems to be evident and that I illustrated in an earlier post - that of the revolving door through government by GS people to the extent that their influence (a subject that could fill pages) provides them with more ability to plunder with no consequences at all.  Don't you wonder why?  


So, what is it about Goldman Sachs?  Please feel free to add your comments.

2 COMMENTS:

Kitty said...

Those who still like GS *because* they've made profit on the long side should keep their eyes open when to reverse, eventually GS clique will screw over their own shareholders too if there's money to be made for 'em. =)

Laser said...

One must pay attention to patterns
in order to understand the beast within.

Recruiting, strategies, political associations
and number of times GS is held culpable.

We are starting deeper investigations into this psuedo Gov entity.

The NY Supreme Ct case of ebc 1 (eToys) v Goldman Sachs is tell tale.

A Judge who went after the lawfirm prosecuting the case
was then Promoted OFF the case

After she left nearly 1/2 the entire case docket is Placed Under SEAL

The whole trial is a sham proceeding to HALT all other actions in 2002 forward.

Tom Petters just rec'd 50 years.

His partner is involved in MN, DE and NY frauds

while his law firm was REVOKED in the state of New York.

The NY Sup Ct case is heating up
and so are we

www.petters-fraud.com

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