The Financial Times of London, in a story last Monday entitled “Goldman pays $5.1bn to settle MBS mis-selling“, tells us that “Federal officials on Monday provided fresh details of what they described as ‘serious misconduct’ by Goldman Sachs when it sold pools of loans to investors that went on to cause an economic meltdown.” Stuart Delery of the Department of Justice told Financial Times that “Investors suffered billions of dollars in losses from securities issued and underwritten by Goldman between 2005 and 2007″ and that “The Wall Street bank knew the instruments it sold were full of mortgages that were likely to fail.” Stuart Delery is the acting associate attorney-general.
Financial Times further quotes Goldman: “We are pleased to put these legacy matters behind us … Since the financial crisis, we have taken significant steps to strengthen our culture, reinforce our commitment to our clients, and ensure our governance processes are robust.”
Your WHTT editor wonders why Goldman Sachs is allowed to put these matters behind it when no one has gone to jail for the purposeful theft from many IRA’s, mutual funds and pension funds that bought these billions of soon-to- be-worthless securities? And what is a “legacy matter” as Goldman calls this swindle? I thought that word meant something one inherits? Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein seems to say the problem is something he was bequeathed and therefore is not responsible for. But Blankfein was in charge in 2006. And recall that Henry Paulson, the former CEO, made way for Blankfein when he became Secretary of the Treasury. Goldman Sachs is a swinging door to and from USSupra-gov, especially the US Treasury. The question should be: who goes to jail. Blankfein, Paulson or both?
Please recall that it was Henry Paulson who presided over the bank bail out, and Goldman Sacks got its share, $10 billion, in July 2008, netting just about twice as much as this fine 8 years later!
I hear Bernie Sanders wants to break up the giant banks? I wonder why?
