Goldman Sachs Under Investigation by the Fed? Yeah Right

Editor's note: In remarks on the state of monetary policy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed concern earlier this week over the Greece debacle, most notably pointing a finger at the role Goldman Sachs may have played in unloading dangerous debt on the EU's least favorite nation (for the moment, just wait until the other dominoes start to fall). JDA votes the Fed is helpless. They were not regulating GS at the time and even now appear entirely unable to do anything but sit there and watch Goldman work its corrosive magic on the world financial system. Sigh. - JDA

Business Week:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the U.S. central bank is reviewing derivatives contracts arranged between Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and investment banks with Greece.

“We are looking into a number of questions related to Goldman Sachs and other companies and their derivatives arrangements with Greece,” Bernanke said yesterday in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in Washington.

Bernanke was responding to a question from Senator Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, who asked if there should be limits on the use of credit default swaps to prevent “runs against governments.” Greek bonds slid yesterday amid concern the country’s credit ratings may be cut.

Read the full article...click here

Would we like to guess what happens next? If Goldman Sachs chooses, it will admit no liability, accept some kind of "settlement", make a nice scene, cry "oh, oh no, please, don't cut off our self-regenerating, massive nuclear testicles" (for a great time, try "Matt Taibbi on Lloyd Blankfein's Balls" via Dealbreaker.

Publisher's Note:  See our own RobertM report here in GS666 on Matt Taibi's story, Wall Street's Bail Out Hustle (the story referred to in Dealbreaker)...click here

Goldman Sachs Links and News - February 25, 2010 with Editorial Comment

Fed Looking into Goldman Sachs' Role
in Greek Debt Crisis - Truthdig
By editor@truthdig.com
Feds Probe Goldman Sachs Over Greece | Sweetness & Light
By Steve 
Goldman Sachs Is 'Morally Culpable' for Greek Debt (Video) - Home ...
By DailyBail 
All About Work & Financial: Bernanke Says Fed Reviewing Goldman ...
By Yeoh Guan Teik
Greece crashes, Goldman Sachs and Chase profit (Jack Bog's Blog)
US Fed reviews Goldman Sachs on Greece finance - XDN ASIAN ... 
Bernanke Says Fed Reviewing Goldman Sachs Relations With Greece
BloombergBernanke: looking at Goldman Sachs role in Greece
Reuters
Fed chief: We're looking into firms betting on Greek default
USA Today
Billionaire Singh Eschews Goldman Model for His India Brokerage
BusinessWeek
Jon Corzine: People Hate Goldman Sachs Because They "Envy" Success (VIDEO)
Huffington Post (blog)
Goldman Sachs, the WSJ, and Consumer Protection
FutureOfCapitalism.com
In Taibbi's Latest, More Shots at Goldman
New York Times (blog)
All About Work & Financial: Goldman Sachs Asked By Senator About ...
By Yeoh Guan Teik

....GS666  GS666  GS666....

Editor's Comment:  The Grease is Heating Up Or is It?

It seems like every couple of weeks another major story develops concerning Goldman Sachs.  Currently the hot topic is Greece.  It seems that the grease in Greece is heating up and maybe ready to start splattering or is it. 

Several major news outlets have reported on The Fed looking into Goldman Sachs and others role in the Greece affair.  A quote from the piece in Bloomberg.com says,

Federal Reserve officials are using new supervisory powers over firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to gather information on financial system risks. Bernanke was responding to a question from Senator Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, who asked if there should be limits on the use of credit default swaps to prevent “runs against governments.”

“Obviously, using these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or a country is -- is counterproductive, and I’m sure the SEC will be looking into that,” Bernanke said. “We’ll certainly be evaluating what we can learn from the activities of the holding companies.” 

"Destabilizing a company or a country is counterproductive" says Chairman Bernanke. Counterproductive?  I believe if someone came into the United States with an attempt to destabilize this country or its economy it would be considered an act of terrorism and even treason if it were done by a citizen - corporate or individual.  The word - counterproductive - seems like a way to sanitize this type of action.  After all, there are no laws against counter-productivity in this country or any other, I don't think.  If it were, then many in our government would be doing time.  After all, much of our government is counterproductive.

But let's talk more about destabilization.  Our country has at the door steps of another Great Depression after our entire financial system was destabalized by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, AIG, Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros., Merrill Lynch, Countrywide, WAMU and a host of other banks, foreign and domestic.  Yet there is no outrage, no investigations or even SEC inquiries into these banks for "Acts of Counter-productivity" which led to a massive destabilization.

Bernanke's "counterproductive" comment was  - stupid - this next comment from Minneapolis Fed President is even more confounding.

“There are lots of enforcement actions that the Fed can take all the way up to something like cease and desist, but I think it is way, way premature to conclude anything like that would be even worth considering,” said former Minneapolis Fed president Gary Stern in an interview

"There are lots of enforcement actions the Fed can take" -  and this is where it gets out there - "all the way up to something like cease and desist".  All the way up to a cease and decist,  WOW, the CEO's at GS and the other banks and their other high paid exiecutives must be readying their Cayman get away homes for permanent residency.  They must be shivering in their Gucci boots.  

First of all, what enforcement powers does The Federal Reserve actually have?  They are a private company not a U.S.Government agency.  Have they been given "police" powers somewhere that I and we as a nation are not aware of?  And if they do have enforcement action then why have they not used it against these same companies for their use of derivatives, off balance sheet deals andcredit default swap activity that destabilized this country?

If one of their strongest weapons of enforcement is a cease and desist order why did they not use it long ago when they knew what these banks were doing and knew what the devastating affects would be down the road?  Even former Fed Chairman Greenspan said in front of Congress that he knew that some of the actions he took - which opened the door to creative investment products - would be bad albeit he didn't think it would be as bad as it was.  Had they issued cease and desist against these banks to stop the creation and sale of these exotic products we would not be in the condition we are in now.  Makes me wonder all the more about who is working with who and for whose benefit.  Certainly not the people of this country or othiers it seems.

Outsourcing may be the answer.

As we have outsourced so much of our economy, outsourcing investigations and enforcement may just be the solution to the justice we all seek.  

The European Union will not sit still for this nor will countries like Germany and France specifically.  I believe they will do the investigations properly and take appropriate actions.  I do believe that they will discover and publish the truth and the house of cards in the Derivatives Cartel will begin to fall.  Outsourced justice.

They will turn up th eheat and the grease will begin to splatter.

Read the full Bloomberg article...click here

More on this story from around the country and around the globe below.

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• The Path to Goldman Sachs Is Paved with Derivatives (slog.thestranger.com)
• Bernanke Says Fed Reviewing Goldman Sachs Relations With Greece (businessweek.com)
• Swap Rumors: Another Blow to Resolution of Greek Debt Crisis (seekingalpha.com)
• Goldman and the Banksters' Role in Greece Economic Crisis (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)
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• Goldman Sachs' Greece Fire (trueslant.com)