Readers, This is not what might be described as unexpected news, and there is little benefit in being right relative to these sort of details. The issue is really that every attempt is being made to thwart any corporate responsibility for the first level of collapse of the theo-classical Ponzi schemes. The criminal control fraud standard is still firmly installed. Tadit

(see the original url below for access to the linked material)

How have big banks preserved their "Too Big To Fail" status? With
giant bags of money and an army of lobbyists who used to work in

Readers, This is an interesting slant on the "Whoopsie" evasion of managerial responsibility in various supposedly unexplainable major disasters. Arthur's astute observation includes current head of the British Financial Services Authority Lord Adair Turner whose presentation is posted at the Re-Imag.Econ. Video site. The Institute for New Economic Thinking first conference was largely supported by George Soros, so the made for video presentation becomes more of a staged evasion and apologism.

originally posted at http://blogmaverick.com/2010/05/09/what-business-is-wall-street-in/

The last two posts were designed to stimulate discussion. But lets
talk the real problem that regulators, public companies,
investor/shareholders and traders face. The problem is that Wall
Street doesn't know what business it is in. Regulators don't know what
the business of Wall Street is. Investor/shareholders don't know what
business Wall Street is in.

The only people who know what business Wall Street is in are the
traders. They know what business Wall Street is in better than

Sen. Carl Levin pretty much had Goldman Sach's (GS) Lloyd Blankfein dead in a casket with that now-notorious email from GS's head of sales and trading, Tom Montag, describing one of their billion-dollar investment "products" as "one shitty deal." Levin seemed to delight in crossing the boundary into the realm of the unspeakable, knowing that even the so-called "family" newspapers and cable TV networks would have to report it. And just to make sure nobody missed the point, the senator repeated that phrase at least 20 times before the day was over.

Here's another case of white-shoe bankers operating not exactly in the best interest of their clients. And this one involves a host of Bay Area municipalities, local law firms, a Justice Department criminal investigation and trillions of dollars of taxpayer money.

Among the dozens of major financial institutions potentially on the hook: JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., San Francisco's Wells Fargo & Co. and, need we say, Goldman Sachs & Co. Inc.

It was the Perry Mason moment in the unraveling of what was left of Goldman Sachs’ reputation. Only in this case, it involved a grizzled former prosecutor, Sen. Carl Levin, rather than a genial defense attorney. The case was broken and the truth about the depth of Goldman’s corruption revealed in his startling cross-examination of Goldman Chief Financial Officer David Viniar.

The investment bank's cult of self-interest is on trial against the whole idea of civilization - the collective decision by all of us not to screw each other over even
if we can

So Goldman Sachs, the world's greatest and smuggest investment bank, has been sued for fraud by the American Securities and Exchange Commission. Legally, the case hangs on a technicality.

Morally, however, the Goldman Sachs case may turn into a final referendum on the greed-is-good ethos that conquered America sometime in the 80s - and in the

the An interview between Bill Moyers and William K. Black

Now to the big rumble of this week -- and I'm not talking about that volcano in Iceland. I'm talking about the fight to reform our financial system.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There is no dividing line between Main Street and Wall Street.

BILL MOYERS: You probably heard the President speaking in New York yesterday, stumping for more regulation of Wall Street:

Readers, I personally see this action by the SEC as a pawn sacrifice gambit by the politicos, no one large and in charge will get hit and whatever punishment is handed out will be token only. Thereafter they will use the talking points to try to reframe the situation as the result of a few bad apples. I see this as strategy as well to minimize financial reform and to give the noise of a perp walk without a thorough investigation of the whole situation, and again leaving the policing of this "industry" to the US Federal Reserve. This is simply a made for mass media bit of theater.

SEC Charges Goldman Sachs With Fraud in Structuring and Marketing of CDO Tied to Subprime Mortgages
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2010-59

Washington, D.C., April 16, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Goldman, Sachs & Co. and one of its vice presidents for defrauding investors by misstating and omitting key facts about a financial product tied to subprime mortgages as the U.S. housing market was beginning to falter.
Additional Materials
Litigation Release No. 21489
SEC Complaint