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You are here: Home / Economics / Free Markets Solve Everything / We Live In Hope

We Live In Hope

by Tom Levenson|  June 2, 20113:21 pm| 23 Comments

This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

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From Bloomberg (via TPM):

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), the fifth- biggest U.S. bank by assets, received a subpoena from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office seeking information on the firm’s activities leading into the credit crisis, according to two people familiar with the matter.

“We don’t comment on specific regulatory or legal issues, but subpoenas are a normal part of the information request process and, of course, when we receive them we cooperate fully,” said David Wells, a company spokesman.

It warms the cockles of my uncharitable heart that Goldman is taking at least a trivial hit where it hurts them next-to-most:

Goldman Sachs dropped 2.3 percent to $133.04 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 9:57 a.m., after falling as much as 3.4 percent following news of the subpoena.

The stock has slid 17 percent since the Senate subcommittee, led by Michigan Democrat Carl M. Levin, used the firm as a case study in a 640-page report on its findings released in April.

Alas, though, I haz a sad over this:

A subpoena is a request for information and doesn’t mean the company is a target of a criminal investigation. Analysts including Sanford C. Bernstein’s Brad Hintz have said they don’t expect the firm to be criminally prosecuted.

If they’ll nail individuals within the firm — enough of them — I’d be satisfied.  I live in hope.

Image:  Charles Wauters Der beim Diebstahl ertappte Hausdiener, (very loosely — the thieving servant, caught in the act), 1845

 

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23Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    June 2, 2011 at 3:24 pm

    I wouldn’t mind seeing Goldman go the way of Enron. But Enron was in collapse and the Jeff Skillings and Ken Lays lost some cover once they started defaulting against their neighboring mega-corps. Goldman is still running strong.

  2. 2.

    beltane

    June 2, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    I’m sure GS will console themselves by taking over a whole country, say Greece.

  3. 3.

    bkny

    June 2, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    this investigation is only because the doj was embarrassed by taibbi’s ruthless work, along with the endless questions from the public about why there hasn’t been any prosecution of these motherfucking pigs. it will drag on for a few years until this country is well beyond any possibility of abiding the rule of law (hell, we’re almost there) and will quietly be closed.

    then, all those lawyers will be lining up at the h.r. offices of the mighty squid begging timmeh for a job.

  4. 4.

    feebog

    June 2, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    May I be the first to call bullshit on this?

    A subpoena is a request for information and doesn’t mean the company is a target of a criminal investigation.

    If there was no criminal investigation underway there would be no need for subpoenas. The subpoenas may not lead to an indictment, but you can be sure that there is an active investigation in progress.

  5. 5.

    dpcap

    June 2, 2011 at 3:30 pm

    Now only if someone would start investigating the higher ed scam the nation might become a better place.

    Oh wait, they are.

  6. 6.

    bago

    June 2, 2011 at 3:32 pm

    After the teabagger’s victory in the 2010 elections, it seems that political journalists have become obsessed with Boehner, the Kochs, and Weiner’s weiner, all while desperately chasing after Palin.

    Literally.

    Let that sink in.

  7. 7.

    Han's Solo

    June 2, 2011 at 3:32 pm

    Isn’t the real problem that most of the crap that they did was NOT illegal?

    You can get away with all kinds of things if you own the people who write the laws.

    After all, no man is above the law… except for the man that writes the law.

  8. 8.

    TJ

    June 2, 2011 at 3:34 pm

    You missed this part:

    The U.S. Department of Justice, which is reviewing a Senate subcommittee report that alleged Goldman Sachs misled clients before the financial crisis, will avoid jeopardizing the fifth- largest U.S. bank by assets because it’s viewed as “too big to fail,” Hintz wrote in note to clients today.

    Pay a fine

  9. 9.

    beltane

    June 2, 2011 at 3:36 pm

    @Han’s Solo: Goldman Sachs is also well known for recruiting former federal prosecutors to work in their legal department. I’m sure they are careful to to obey the letter of the law while blatantly violating the spirit of the law. By doing so, they provide an example of a situation where a bill of attainder wouldn’t necessarily be such a terrible thing.

  10. 10.

    Poopyman

    June 2, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    Analysts including Sanford C. Bernstein’s Brad Hintz have said they don’t expect the firm to be criminally prosecuted.

    Does this even mean anything? Saying anything else would probably cause GS stock to drop. Besides being bad for your own bottom line, it give the appearance of irresponsible behavior, which in the financial world — is bad for your own bottom line.

  11. 11.

    dollared

    June 2, 2011 at 3:41 pm

    One point of hope is that Cyrus Vance, Jr. is the son of that Cyrus Vance. I have it on information and belief that young Cy (he must be about 55) won’t need to beg Goldman for a job just to make sure he can afford to send his kids to college.

  12. 12.

    Poopyman

    June 2, 2011 at 3:42 pm

    @Han’s Solo: To be accurate, the people writing the laws own the people that end up passing the laws they’ve been handed.

  13. 13.

    Poopyman

    June 2, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    FYWP. I don’t have permission to edit my comments. Be careful with your typing!

  14. 14.

    Citizen Alan

    June 2, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    I say we nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

  15. 15.

    joeyess

    June 2, 2011 at 3:53 pm

    But, but, but,….. wait… (sigh) can’t you see what this is doing to the health of the company’s stock?? You can’t make us responsible when we’re profiting! Please, at least think of the children.

  16. 16.

    joeyess

    June 2, 2011 at 3:59 pm

    @Citizen Alan: (turning head to whisper in hand) Aliens.

  17. 17.

    joeyess

    June 2, 2011 at 4:04 pm

    @Zifnab: the problem is that they’re so big we can’t let them fail. Our economy has become a zombie….. we can’t kill it because it’s already dead and all it wants is more brains.

  18. 18.

    RSA

    June 2, 2011 at 4:04 pm

    Charles Wauters Der beim Diebstahl ertappte Hausdiener, (very loosely—the thieving servant, caught in the act)

    That’s a fine translation. I never got the hang of written German like this without doing sentence diagrams in my head: The [[in-the act-of-theft] caught] house servant.

  19. 19.

    Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937

    June 2, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    If you continue persecuting the producers, you’ll only end up hurting the public employee pensions whose funds are invested in Goldman Sachs /libertarian drivel

  20. 20.

    Citizen Alan

    June 2, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    @joeyess:

    If a business is too big to fail without damaging the whole nation, then it should be nationalized. Period. The very idea of a business being “too big to fail” is fundamentally contrary to both democracy and capitalism.

  21. 21.

    Zifnab

    June 2, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    @joeyess: People have been saying that, but there’s also been a lot of talk about how to properly wind down a zombie institution.

    Yes, Goldman Sachs is a walking corpse. But no, we don’t have to feed it brains forever. We can shrink it down, limit its liabilities, cram down its debts, and once we get it small enough (to borrow a phrase) drown it in the bath tub.

    That was the original intent of a lot of the financial regulation reform. But those good intentions were devoured by the self-same zombie banks. So we’re back to square one. But this isn’t how it has to be.

  22. 22.

    Don

    June 2, 2011 at 5:38 pm

    If there was no criminal investigation underway there would be no need for subpoenas.

    The question isn’t whether there’s an investigation, the question is whether the organization itself will face charges. People get subpoenaed who are not wrongdoers in any way. Clearly GS isn’t clean as the driven snow but just because they’re being compelled to hand over evidence doesn’t mean they as an org will face charges or are even being considered for them.

  23. 23.

    Cliff in NH

    June 2, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    That is an Amazing painting.

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