Surprise!!!! Goldman Sachs accused of misleading investors

[malaise]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13077509
<snip>
A US Senate probe says Goldman Sachs misled investors selling mortgage-backed investments it knew would fail.

It said Goldman had also misled Congress in a testimony given in 2010.

The report said that Goldman marketed four sets of complex mortgage securities to banks and other investors, but failed to tell them the investments were very risky.

In addition, the report said the bank did not mention that it was itself betting that the investments' value would fall, indicating it sold products to clients it did not believe in backing itself.

Carl Levin, the Democrat who heads the subcommittee, told a press briefing that Goldman had "exploited" clients.
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Throw away the fugging keys - lock up the robber barons or make them JUMP

[xchrom]

1. lock them up AND take their money.

that's the only way it will work.

[arrestblankfein]

5. good start toward helping the national debt

THEY LIED UNDER OATH!

Congress impeached Clinton for that and it affected absolutely noone.

WE have to SCREAM about this! DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!!!!

[MedicalAdmin]

8. We should "munich" every last one of them and their families.

Remove the contagion from the genetic pool.

[90-percent]

2. "Goldman had "exploited" clients"

Analogy:

Jeffry Dahlmer "exploited" teenage males.

-90% Jimmy

[subterranean]

3. What they did may have been unethical, but was it illegal?

Goldman Sachs and the other big banks will do whatever they can get away with to make a profit while staying within the letter (if not the spirit) of the law. And sometimes they'll break the law if they know the penalties are light enough that breaking the law is profitable. If the securities were rated Aaa by Moody's but GS believed those ratings were bogus, was it legally obligated to tell its clients that? If not, then maybe the law should be changed. Practices like this are the reason Wall Street needs to be regulated.

[Scuba]

4. I'm confident the Goldman executives responsible for this will be held....

...in high esteem by their colleagues, and given billions in bonuses.

[LatteLibertine]

6. In some cases

I've heard of folks behaving like Goldman Sachs and they're merely fined. They'd do something like fraudulently sell 2 billion dollars of toxic assets then be possibly fined 11 million dollars. I'm fairly sure the profit reaped from the 2 billion in sales makes the fine a joke.

The same thing often happens with regulations in the food market. Businesses may ignore the regulations because it's cheaper for them to pay the fine than to conform to expected standards.

The point is, we need to make cheating and noncompliance far more expensive than behaving properly. Of course that means >nothing< if the losses are not absorbed by the people who willing took the risks or perpetuated the fraud.

We need to make it so losses are not able to be shifted to taxpayers. IE, end socialize the losses and privatize the profits. If people want to gamble, I'm fine with it. They should need to do so with their own money and/or with that of their friends who have willingly agreed. Losses should come from that same pool, not from all taxpayers.

I'd also bar the main people who perpetuated this mess from ever being employed within that industry again. They would not be able to hop from from one organization to the next.

In addition, we need to tax capital gains of the wealthy more so than earned income.

[Cali_Democrat]

7. Jail these mother fuckers

NOW!