Goldman Sachs Always Comes Up Smelling Like a Rose!

It is interesting to see how Goldman Sachs manages its influence in European affairs.  First, Mario Draghi becomes President of the European Central Bank in spite of Draghi's association with Goldman Sachs as vice chairman and managing director (2002-2005).  Draghi claims not to have participated in the illegal swaps deal that Goldman sold Greece in order to hide Greek debt.  Europeans have preferred to overlook the (il)legalities of the swap.

Second, Goldman is given primary dealer status in the European Union bank.  For some not-so-obscure reason, Goldman always manages to obtain lucrative positions for its members in spite of any ethical or moral lapses it may have had.  Goldman successfully manages regulatory capture both at home and abroad with little scrutiny and small or no penalty.

Finally, financial journalists do not seem interested in tracking down the factual evidence around Goldman's dealings.

Goldman Sachs:  Rewarded for Greek Debt Scheme
By ECB Watch

 In an earlier article, EU's selective Lessons from Greece, we saw that EU Parliament's investigation of the financial crisis (CRIS), and the hearing Lessons from Greece (ECON/7/02578), lacked the resolve to address the Greece/Goldman secret loan that was allegedly improper and exacerbated Greece's ills.

Goldman Sachs' explanations contained gaping holes, and that was left unchallenged. Perhaps the most striking example of it is the the claim by its spokesman at a 2010 hearing before the EU parliament that he didn't know of the single most important restructuring of the deal in 2005:

See the whole article (with many interesting links) here