Tuesday was not a fun day to be a top executive at Goldman Sachs. Sen. Carl Levin and his posse from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations made sure of that during a lengthy interrogation session, which included quite a zinger from Sen. Levin to Daniel Sparks, who used to run Goldman’s mortgage department. Meanwhile, the company’s stock rose a dollar and a penny. —KA
Bloomberg Businessweek:
“How about the fact that you sold hundreds of millions of that deal after your people knew it was a shitty deal?” the Michigan Democrat asked Daniel Sparks, who ran the bank’s mortgage unit at the time. “Does that bother you at all?”
... In his comments to Sparks, Levin was referring to a June 2007 e-mail to Sparks from Thomas Montag, the former head of sales and trading in the Americas at Goldman Sachs. The message described a set of mortgage-linked investments that his bank had been trying to sell as part of “one shitty deal.”
“I don’t recall selling hundreds of millions of that deal after that,” Sparks replied, adding that he believed the e-mail referred to his performance, not the security itself.
“If you can’t give a clear answer to that one, Mr. Sparks, I don’t think we’re going to get too many clear answers from you,” Levin said.
Shares Rise
As the executives testified, Goldman Sachs was the only stock among 79 financial companies that gained in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The stock rose $1.01 to $153.04 as of 5:04 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
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By amunaor, April 28, 2010 at 9:24 am Link to this comment
(((RE: faith, April 28 at 3:17 am #
Well said, amunaor. Unfortunately, I suspect it is all for show for the american people as well as the world. )))
***
I too suspect the same as you. Nothing ever ‘changes’ following these ‘feigned’ public displays of righteous indignation, by those, so called, guardians!
At the end of the day, the only thing that changes is the ‘gaming’ board being rearranged; with the size of the ‘take’ increased, as the house is rigged to always come out ahead.
Such is the result of unrestrained egos, left to fly without any checks and balances.
Peace, Best Wished and Hope
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By jack, April 27, 2010 at 11:51 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Don’t hold your breath for prosecution - Le Place De La Concord redux - heads
should roll - literally!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why march on Washington? March on Wall Street!!!!!!!!
If guillotines scare you - go easy on ‘em - send them to Abu Ghraib!!!!!
Report thisBy faith, April 27, 2010 at 11:17 pm Link to this comment
Well said, amunaor. Unfortunately, I suspect it is all for show for the american
Report thispeople as well as the world. Our Congress and our current government simply
utter words of distaste to the G-S leadership as well as all those you mentioned
above. Secretly, I wonder if they care about regular people at all. Hope is de
minimus at this point. Our AG doesn’t even have the gumption to sue to enjoin
those corporatists from pillaging the funds that we tax payers provided for
bailouts. We are bankrupt as a nation - both morally and economically.
By amex, April 27, 2010 at 11:15 pm Link to this comment
Some piece of shit senators scream all day in front of Goldfink Co. and probably then go out to suck them off for more money. This system sucks, sucks, sucks. Who is going to be prosecuted here? That is how you create the deterrent. I want to know how that creepy lurch got to go steal my money with a three page ransom letter and give it to those creepy goldfink thugs. I want to know how it is that they received 100 cents on the dollar from AIG and I want prosecution!!!! I want no stone left unturned. That is the DETERRENT!!!
Fuck those American politicians - they should be lynched - all of them. I can’t believe that I am sitting in some agreement with those other fanatics - the teabaggers or whatever they call themselves, that they want to throw all of them out - they are right.
Americans - get pissed off and start screaming your fool heads off before its too late!!!
Report thisBy amunaor, April 27, 2010 at 9:16 pm Link to this comment
Shitty Deal behind door number 1: Michael Milken - the junk bond aficionado
Shitty Deal behind door number 2: Keating Five - Savings & Loan Fiasco
Shitty Deal behind door number 3: Enron - Drug Money Laundromat
Shitty Deal behind door number 4: Wall Street Casino Pig Fest
Can we expect to find a better shitty deal behind door number 5?
Peace, Best Wishes and Hope
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