Was the public disclosure of the bank stress tests delayed so Goldman Sachs could raise capital? Is national policy managed to serve one private investment group’s convenience? As the disclosure and fiduciary laws related to protecting the rights of existing creditors and shareholders were violated in Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch, are the disclosure rights of new bondbuyers to be violated for Goldman Sachs? How can investors price a security if the Wall Street-Washington axis are free to manage material omissions for the purpose of fleecing them? And if price has no meaning, what then?
- Goldman Bond Sale Raises Questions—Financial Times (30 Apr 09)
- Follow the Money—Catherine Austin Fitts Blog (4 Nov 08)
- Goldman Sachs Hires Barney Frank Staff To Be Its Lobbyist—EconomicPolicyJournal.com (29 Apr 09)
- How Goldman Sachs Took Over The World—The Independent (22 Jul 08)
Also looks like the Federal Government is going to be feeding more assets into the JP Morgan monster. We will all get more derivatives and everyone will be forever prosperous!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/JPMorgan-CEO-sees-more-bank-rb-15121635.html;_ylt=AgSg7ga71juDkkJ4xDxb.5e7YWsA?sec=topStories&pos=7&asset=&ccode=
We can only surmise that the TRUE reason for this accounting chicanery [FASB relaxing mark-to-market rules] is to obfuscate the true condition of institutions such as Goldman Sachs – which recently, for the first time – was subject to minimal transparency requirements when, as a bank for the first time, they were required to report to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency [OCC] and their financials were subject to the OCC’s Q4/08 Quarterly Derivatives Reporting:
Table 4 of the Q4/08 OCC Quarterly Derivatives Report displays the Total Credit Exposure to Capital ratios for U.S. reporting banks and happens to be one of the most telling capital adequacy ratios known to man. If ever there was a failing grade on a “stress test” – HERE IT IS IN SPADES!!! The aforementioned measure of capital adequacy, [1,056.4] in Goldman’s case, is so TOXIC – in fact; one can only wonder if regulators might have required radiation suits and Geiger Counters to safely measure the TOXICITY of Goldman’s books. Goldman’s figures stand out almost 5 times worse than those of Citibank and Bank of America and 11 times those of Wells Fargo.
Of course, with the discarding of real accounting standards in the United States, the true extent of this toxicity will now conveniently be obfuscated from the general public in further OCC reports,
“..new mark-to-market accounting guidance will be effective for the second quarter, with early application allowed for the first quarter, and not be retroactive.
Not retroactive????? “Effective for the second quarter, with early application allowed for the first quarter??????” Who are these CLOWNS trying to kid? From this time forward, this shall no doubt become known as “the Goldman Clause”.
To call this maneuvering “brutal” is an insult to the true meaning of the word.
Rob Kirby