Goldman Sachs, in my opinion, has started its descent. For years, it has been out there, surviving crisis after crisis, managing to make tons of money and pay handsome bonuses even in tough years. It’s built a solid house – nearly everyone in a top-level economic position in the US seems to be from Goldman. But that foundation seems to be rotting now, and the cracks in the wall are getting more and more evident.
Matt Taibbi has a great piece on Goldman (scanned in by Zero Hedge)
Taibbi-Goldman-Sachs
(Btw, Goldman countered, and Taibbi replied with another scathing column)
Tyler at Zero Hedge has done a great job exposing chinks in the Goldman armor, and so has Mike Morgan at http://www.goldmansachs666.com. Goldman seems to feel it – the oldies are closing ranks and keeping lids on data, and pursuing random legal options to keep such sites at bay. But there’s too much out there known already.
Read the article – from market manipulation to blatant disregard for the rules and ethics in the game, there’s stories of them all. (Oil will be at $100! Oil at $200! oh wait. Oil is now at $30? Frik, Oil at $75! ) Matt doesn’t spare the ex-Goldman ex-Treasury Secretary Paulson either, and has scant respect for the insiders of all the big banks.
It seems to me that Goldman could be the next Enron. There’s a lot of financial shit waiting to hit the fan – probably the worst kind since the Great Depression – and Goldman may just end up being a high-profile casualty. Or will they make it through this time too?