For the last two years especially, and for a decade or two generally, how Goldman Sachs gets away with how they practice business has bewildered me. Now that isn't to say that I don't get how Washington elites abuse their power to enrich themselves and Wall Street at the expense of the people they are supposed to represent. What gets me is that it has taken this long for public outrage to hit a level where someone with an ounce of authority is willing to take these financial felons to task for their heinous crimes.
From The New York Times:
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil fraud suit on Friday that essentially says that Goldman built the financial equivalent of a time bomb and then sold it to unwitting investors. Mr. Egol, 40, was not named in the S.E.C.’s suit.
Goldman has vowed to fight the S.E.C. But the allegations have left many on Wall Street wondering how far the investigation might spread inside Goldman and perhaps beyond.
Pressure on Goldman mounted on Sunday as two members of Congress and Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister, called for investigations into the bank’s role in the mortgage market. Germany also said it was considering legal action against the bank.
Nothing short of a worldwide effort to punish these crooks will do. The pockets of Goldman Sachs make the Mariana Trench look shallow and their ruthlessness would make Al Capone blush. This is serious business and the S.E.C., despite taking action now was fast asleep at their regulatory wheel when this crisis was building.
As the story of the mortgage market manipulation becomes more widely known and specific details are unearthed, a large pool of resources must be utilized so that no one who deserves blame escapes it. Not only must this be done for the guilty to receive justice, more importantly, an example must be set so that those that work in the financial industry realize that screwing hard working Americans over does not fly.
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