Damn, When Goldman Gets an Update Post……

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True Dat!

You know that the Vampire Squid^* is "living in interesting times."

It now appears that governments in both the UK and Germany are calling for investigations of the firm's dealings.

Additionally, in a splendid piece of electioneering, the Tory opposition is calling for a ban on government contracts for the firm until the investigations are concluded.

Finally, in what might be the ultimate indignity, AIG is looking at suing Goldman Sachs on the insurance policies that it provided, on the theory that they were under no obligation to pay the arsonist who burnt down his own house.

It will be interesting to see where things goes from here.

Even with all the the opprobrium directed at the firm (see the Taibbi quote below), the consensus was that they would skate, because they were "too powerful" for any meaningful action to be taken against them.

If this case cracks that shell, I think that we will see many more rocks overturned to see what lurks beneath.

My guess is that this will all end with a token fine and no admission of wrong-doing, but I would be happy to be wrong.

^*Alas, I cannot claim credit for the bon mot describing Goldman Sachs as a, "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." This was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.