Goldman Sachs is embarrassed

Senator Jon Tester has uploaded a video of his grilling of Goldman here.

TESTER: I can tell you that there are some things in my job as a U.S. Senator from Montana that don’t make a lot of sense. One of the things that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me is why these synthetic—and I know you’ve got an answer for it—but why these synthetic instruments came about when there’s nothing in them. And Claire’s right. It’s about—it’s just like betting on a sports event. It’s like betting on whether it’s going to rain. It’s like betting on a bunch of stuff that doesn’t make any sense. It’s not about hedging as a farmer would do it or as an airliner or a coal company or whatever it might be. This is just playing around, from my perspective. And that fact is, I think part of this playing around is why taxpayers had to bail out part of what went on, on Wall Street. And I’ve got some issues with that. And I, like other members on this Committee, I think you’re a smart guy. And I would like to work with you. I think this country is in dire need of Wall Street reform, and I think that you could add some to the equation as long as we can bore down and get to the facts. Transparency is critically, critically important in making sure the consumers are protected. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of folks who have lost their retirement, lost their college tuition for their kids, lost all sorts of bad things. While other folks that got bailed out are literally making millions of dollars.
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That's Sen. Tester grilling Blankfein about derivatives....and speaking of derivatives, here's a very interesting video on the quants who created the mathematical formulas that have created some of the problems that are screwing us.

Favorite Quotes:

• I'd like to apologize to the planet
• It's the formula that crashed Wall Street

Hat tip to Jim's Mailbox