Goldman Sachs Now a Big Commodities Dealer

How The Financial Crisis Helped Turn Big Banks Into Global Commodities Kings
By Linette Lopez - Business Insider

Wall Street's biggest banks are currently under the gun for their massive role in global commodities markets. But what many don't realize is the vast expansion of that role was, in large part, an unintended consequence of the chaos of the financial crisis.

Should we be shocked that the ramifications of the financial crises are still reverberating years later with unexpected repercussions? Not in the slightest.

Without the financial crisis, Wall Street's legally designated, FDIC insured, bank holding companies (FHCs) would not have had the opportunity to build massive portfolios of oil, natural gas, metals and more. They would not have been able to buy the things that transport and house those commodities either.

Right now, bankers might be daydreaming of an alternate reality where they didn't build the huge, now tenuous, commodities portfolios which are drawing increased scrutiny.

Such scrutiny as the July 20th The New York Times story that accused Goldman Sachs of using its aluminum warehouses to manipulate the price of the commodity — an assertion the bank emphatically denies — costing consumers billions.

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