A Big Sack of Wet, Smelly Goldman

This morning we have a mixed bag of goodies:

One Crowd Still Loyal to Goldman Sachs
Lots of people are talking about what is happening at Goldman Sachs. This is a column about what is not happening at Goldman.

Despite all the bad headlines — the accusations of fraud, the talk of a big settlement, the risk, however remote, of criminal charges — there’s an inconvenient truth that’s been largely ignored: Most of Goldman’s big customers are not bolting.

To the contrary, nearly all of them are standing by Goldman, despite come-hither looks from Goldman’s rivals.

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For its part, Goldman keeps insisting that it plays fair. To which its critics say, come on. Are you really sticking to that story, after all the public outrage? Who do you think believes you?

As unsatisfying as this may be to the firm’s detractors, the people who seem to believe in Goldman are the ones who pay its bills.

“We trust them,” Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric, told an audience at the 92nd Street Y in New York last month. “People need to tone down the rhetoric around financial services and stop the populism and be adults.”

In recent weeks, BP went looking for advisers to help it think through the liabilities of the spill. Considering BP’s own public relations problems, you might think it would stay far away from Goldman. But no, Goldman is now one of those advisers. (Goldman, it should be noted, happens to also be an adviser to the New York Times Company.)

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Read the rest here
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Here's some different opinions



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And here's Damon's latest piece on the macroeconomy



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BP Develops Technology to Convert Lies into Energy

‘Totally Renewable Resource,’ Says CEO

LONDON (The Borowitz Report) – In what is being called a game-changer for the embattled oil company, British Petroleum announced today that it has developed a new technology to convert lies into energy.

At a press conference at corporate headquarters in London, BP CEO Tony Hayward said that environmentalists would embrace the new technology “because lies are a totally renewable resource.”

Illustrating the impact of BP’s new technology, Mr. Hayward told reporters, “Over the past month alone, my words could power the city of London for a year.”

But the new technology has its skeptics, including the University of Minnesota’s Davis Logsdon, who warns of the dangers of “lie spills.”

“We have learned from recent BP press conferences that once the lie flow starts, it can be very hard to stop,” he says.  More here.

The Los Angeles Times says Andy Borowitz has "one of the funniest Twitter feeds around."  Follow Andy on Twitter here.