Senate committee details Wall Street criminality

[Stalin]

Watch this go nowhere - these institutions bankroll both wings of the War Party that has ruled the US since Theodore Roosevelt.

"..Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank AG, two of the largest investment banks in the world, profited from the sale of securities they knew to be worthless, and Goldman later “misled” congress about its activities, according to a report published Wednesday by the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The Senate committee, headed by Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, concluded that Goldman Sachs “used net short positions to benefit from the downturn in the mortgage market, and designed, marketed, and sold CDOs [mortgage-backed securities] in ways that created conflicts of interest with the firm’s clients and at times led to the bank’s profiting from the same products that caused substantial losses for its clients.”

Levin’s report goes further than the Financial Crisis Inquiry report, issued January 27, which stopped short of naming individual cases of malfeasance. The 635-page report offers specific details about offenses committed by Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Washington Mutual and Moody’s rating agency, but does not have the authority to call these actions criminal, according to Levin.

Levin’s report presents the doings of individual organizations—including credit rating agency Moody’s, subprime leader Washington Mutual, Deutsche Bank, and Goldman—as case studies, pointing to the much broader criminality throughout the whole of Wall Street.

...

Two and a half years after the financial crisis, the banks are doing better than ever. JPMorgan Chase, the second-biggest US bank, said Wednesday that its first quarter profits set a new record. Profits at the bank hit $5.56 billion, up 68 percent from a year ago, in the bank’s second consecutive record quarter. The other banks, including Goldman Sachs, are expected to report similar figures in the coming weeks.

Marketwatch, the sister news agency of the Wall Street Journal, observed bluntly that, based on earlier experience, Levin’s report will not result in prosecutions, despite the hundreds of documents that would point to criminal wrongdoing.

The site concluded that, “Goldman and Deutsche Bank AG … are embarrassed today, but they know that the damage is mostly in the realm of public relations.”

“History,” the site added, “is on their side. On Wall Street money talks, bankers walk.”

more at http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/levi-a15.shtml

Comrade Stalin

 

[Dr.Who]

There are government agencies that are responsible for catching and prosecuting criminals - even on wall street.

If congress is going to spend millions of dollars to talk and write reports and then still no one is going to be prosecuted then obviously the agencies responsible for catching and prosecuting wall street criminals are useless.

We should save ourselves some money and get rid of agencies that don't work. Then we will all just know not to invest in wall street the same way we know not to invest in Russian securities.

 

[TruthSeeker]

We have a member of this forum who uses "short positions" as a way to make a living.

Goldman Sachs is an INVESTMENT bank. They aren't a typical bank that we are all used to. Goldman Sachs should be raided, all of their files and computers seized, and their management people arrested and brought to justice.

And don't forget........Goldman Sachs got government bailout money! Now that is the definition of "irony", isn't it?

Another irony is that many Goldman Sachs executives have held positions in the federal government for decades. Henry Paulson was the big chief at Goldman Sachs when Bush appointed him Treasury Secretary, and Paulson was also on the board of the IMF.