GOLDMAN SACHS
Heads I win, tails you lose.
That’s pretty much how it worked for Goldman Sachs and others who were trading in Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), the credit default swaps that made Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and other smaller firms billions—much of it coming from the pockets of their own clients.
Immoral? Yes. Illegal? We may soon find out.
The New York Times reports this particular scam is now under investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission, which is questioning whether there was anything illegal in this version of how Goldman and others screwed over their clients. The scam is a bit complicated—the better to keep it under wraps—but here’s how it worked:
Goldman sets up a fund of collateralized mortgage debt, which it sells to clients with promises of a nice payout if the housing market continues to rise. It then takes out insurance to cover losses should the housing market tank. It then bets against the fund by shorting the bonds, a little …………….
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CONFLIT D’INTÉRÊTS
D’après le New York Times , Goldman Sachs (Comme Morgan Stanley et la Deutsche bank )a peu souffert de la crise. Selon le grand quotidien, ces banques auraient pris des positions dans les deux sens, une première fois en vendant ces produits à leurs clients, une deuxième fois en prenant des positions à la baisse sur ces produits, pariant sur leur dégringolade.
Ces titres des obligations adossées à des actifs (collateralized debt obligation, CDO), constituées pour partie de crédits immobiliers à risque « Subprime », Conscientes du risque de ces CDO qu’elles avaient crées et mises sur le marché, les banques ont pris des positions sur leur baisse . Quand la crise des subprimes a explosé au cours de l’été 2007, les clients de ces banques qui avaient souscrit à ces CDO ont vu leurs investissements partir en fumée.
D’après le New York Times, une enquête a été ouverte par des membres du Congrès, la Securities and exchange commission, SEC) et Finra . Les enquêteurs se concentrent leurs enquête sur une éventuelle violation des règles de transactions équitables de la part des banques.
Il semblerait d’après le NY T , que les CDO aient été volontairement constituées de crédits immobiliers particulièrement risqués. Une des CDO proposées par Goldman Sachs, sur laquelle Goldman Sachs avait pris des positions à la baisse , lui aurait ainsi rapporté 210 millions de dollars en mars 2008, dix-huit mois après sa création. Interrogées par le NYT , les banques mises en cause se sont défendues en affirmant « qu’il est normal qu’elles utilisent différentes techniques de trading(contrepartie pour se prémunir contre les risques de perte ».
Selon des experts cités par le NYT, ces prises de positions pourraient avoir été prises contre les intérêts de ses propres clients.
Ce nouveau développement démontre que certaines banques, qui avaient anticipé la crise des subprimes liées entre autres au retournement du marché de l’immobilier, ont tenter de faire croire à leurs clients qu’il était encore intéressant d’investir dans ces crédits immobiliers à risques.
La crises des Subprimes est né de la profusion de crédits immobiliers offerts aux NINJA,
No Income, No jobs, No Assets !
Any mistake, une erreur, please contact : bj@abusinesstabloid.com
Another Break for Goldman Sachs
CEO Jamie Dimon can explain how to have your cake and eat it, too.
Remember that $10 billion loan Goldman Sachs returned to the U.S Treasury, the move that allowed it to pay out record bonuses this year? Turns out the refund was a wash for the greediest firm on Wall Street.
Under tax laws that have been on the books for years — this is what happens when we don’t pay attention — banks are permitted to deduct bonuses from their federal taxes. According to Robert Willens, an accounting and tax analyst in New York who runs a consulting firm, Robert Willens LLC, Goldman Sachs will get a nifty $9 billion tax break for the $23 billion is will hand out in bonuses for 2009.
We can just imagine the conversation between Goldman CEO Lloyd “Doing God’s Work” Blankfiein and the head of the his tax department.
Tax man: “Mr. Blankfein, there’s a way to keep the government’s $10 billion handout and get our bonuses.”
Blankfein: “Really?”
Tax man: “Yes, if you give back the $10 billion, and than authorize, say $23 billion in bonuses, we get a $9 billion tax deduction.”
Blankfein: “And that’s legal?”
Tax man: “Completely. Our lobbyists took care of that years ago. That’s one reason we pay almost nothing in federal taxes.”
Blankfein. “Terrific. Put yourself down for a big bonus.”
And yes,
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Jan. 23 2010 — 4:36 pm | 86 views | 0 recommendations | 1 comment
Video of Flight 1549 Emerging from the Hudson River
Thanks to citizen journalist David Martin, here’s a fascinating time-lapse video of the Airbus A320 aircraft—US Airways flight 1549 that crash landed on the Hudson last January—as it was carefully plucked out of the icy river by crane.
In case you are interested: the hull of the aircraft is now up for auction, listed for sale “AS IS/WHERE IS” at a salvage yard in Kearny, N.J.
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Jan. 22 2010 — 11:14 am | 242 views | 0 recommendations | 2 comments
Barney Franks finally going after Goldman Sachs & Friends, and we wish him well
Image by AFP/Getty Images via Daylife
Barney Franks and his House Financial Services Committee will open hearings today to discuss ways to impose limits on executive pay and the risks our bankers can take. Good for him. Will we skip the obvious question—what took Barney so long?—and wish him well.
Clearly, the timing is no coincidence. Not after Frank’s home state drove home just how deep the populist anger in our nation truly runs. Note to Dems: Are you listening now?
Just to give Barney a rolling start, below are some choice words collected following the long-anticipated compensation announcement made yesterday by Goldman Sachs, the touchstone for all that is greedy and wrong in the financial system today. Goldman, clearly fearing a surge of citizens with torches and pitch forks storming their Manhattan fortress when the numbers went public—the New York Post reported police barricades and bomb sniffing dogs at Goldman’s 85 Broad Street headquarters—cut back their bonus pool as a percentage of revenues.
So, instead of a $20-billion pool, Goldman had just $16.2 billion to share with its employees. Tough times. Earlier, Goldman attempted to deflect criticism by taking $500 million out of its bonus pool and giving it to charity. Nonetheless, Goldman’s 32,500 employees, consultants and temporary staff will receive compensation averaging about a half-million dollars. For the record: Goldman earned a record profit of $13.4 billion on revenues of $45.2. Yes, that was a company record.
Not bad for a company that received more than a $10 billion bailout from the Obama administration. And you thought your tax dollars were going to waste.
“The bonuses just add insult to injury,” Representative Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), who has proposed a 75% bonus tax on Wall Street banks. “If they want to regain public confidence, they should reduce or eliminate their bonus pool. You are going to see a backlash developing against Wall Street.” Via the New York Times
Lynn A. Stout, a professor of securities law at the U.C.L.A., says the bank was “parasitical,” since it earned most of its profits from trading, not lending: “Goldman Sachs needs to become a socially productive member of society,” she tells the New York Times. “At the moment, they don’t have that claim.”
Here’s what Britian’s General Secretary of Trades Union Congress Brendan Barber, who represents 58 affiliated unions with nearly seven million workers, had to say in today’s Mirror: read more from Jon Pessah
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