What did Goldman Sachs & JP Morgan Chase did which differ from Enron?
Almost none except that Enron got screwed for deliberately causing blackouts whereas the darlings of Wall St get away with conning Americans and the rest of the world.
The off balance sheet items are there, the mark to model is atill being practiced.
Goldman Sachs the $4b 'giant vampire squid'
By Washington correspondent Kim Landers for AM
Posted Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:07pm AEST
Updated 2 hours 44 minutes ago
Goldman Sachs has been described as a "giant vampire squid" for its $4b second-quarter profit. (ABC: Lateline Business)
Audio: Goldman profit raises moral question (AM) US banking giant Goldman Sachs has executed an extraordinary comeback after the near meltdown of the US financial sector last year.
It has delivered more than $4 billion in second-quarter net profit, easily surpassing analysts' expectations.
The prestigious financial firm is the first of the "big guns" in the sector to report its second quarter results.
It has already paid back its $US10 billion ($12.6 billion) taxpayer-funded loan.
On top of its better than expected results, Goldman Sachs is setting aside almost $400,000 on average in remuneration for each employee.
Analysts predict that once bonuses are added, the staff at Goldman Sachs could get an average of almost $800,000 by the end of the year.
Professor of Finance at Manhattan College, Charles Geisst, has told AM the hefty bonus payments are likely to attract scrutiny, considering the current economic climate.
"With Goldman turning and making what most people consider to be obscene amounts of money, given this particular market, I think that there's going to be repercussions from this," he said.
"If not directly legally, which probably won't happen, it will certainly filter its way through to the financial reforms which are currently before Congress."
Eliot Spitzer is the former New York Governor.
"This could be a political explosion when members of Congress say 'wait a minute, we've just given money to Goldman Sachs, so their employees are making $700,000'," he said.
"I've got auto workers, I've got people who serve coffee in the diner out of work because there's no money in the economy, unemployment hitting 10 per cent soon."
The company's chief financial officer says "we are helping the economy to recover", but not everyone agrees.
Rolling Stone magazine recently described Goldman Sachs as a "giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity", relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.
Almost none except that Enron got screwed for deliberately causing blackouts whereas the darlings of Wall St get away with conning Americans and the rest of the world.
The off balance sheet items are there, the mark to model is atill being practiced.
Goldman Sachs the $4b 'giant vampire squid'
By Washington correspondent Kim Landers for AM
Posted Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:07pm AEST
Updated 2 hours 44 minutes ago
Goldman Sachs has been described as a "giant vampire squid" for its $4b second-quarter profit. (ABC: Lateline Business)
Audio: Goldman profit raises moral question (AM) US banking giant Goldman Sachs has executed an extraordinary comeback after the near meltdown of the US financial sector last year.
It has delivered more than $4 billion in second-quarter net profit, easily surpassing analysts' expectations.
The prestigious financial firm is the first of the "big guns" in the sector to report its second quarter results.
It has already paid back its $US10 billion ($12.6 billion) taxpayer-funded loan.
On top of its better than expected results, Goldman Sachs is setting aside almost $400,000 on average in remuneration for each employee.
Analysts predict that once bonuses are added, the staff at Goldman Sachs could get an average of almost $800,000 by the end of the year.
Professor of Finance at Manhattan College, Charles Geisst, has told AM the hefty bonus payments are likely to attract scrutiny, considering the current economic climate.
"With Goldman turning and making what most people consider to be obscene amounts of money, given this particular market, I think that there's going to be repercussions from this," he said.
"If not directly legally, which probably won't happen, it will certainly filter its way through to the financial reforms which are currently before Congress."
Eliot Spitzer is the former New York Governor.
"This could be a political explosion when members of Congress say 'wait a minute, we've just given money to Goldman Sachs, so their employees are making $700,000'," he said.
"I've got auto workers, I've got people who serve coffee in the diner out of work because there's no money in the economy, unemployment hitting 10 per cent soon."
The company's chief financial officer says "we are helping the economy to recover", but not everyone agrees.
Rolling Stone magazine recently described Goldman Sachs as a "giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity", relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.
