Going for the Goldman

My wife, Barbara Bedway, reports, you decide: "McClatchy’s new multi-part series on Goldman Sachs, 'How Goldman Bet on the U.S. Housing Crash' reports that 'Goldman's failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.' Among other findings, the five-month investigation reveals that Goldman Sachs 'bought and converted into high-yield bonds tens of thousands of mortgages from subprime lenders that became the subjects of FBI investigations into whether they'd misled borrowers or exaggerated applicants' incomes to justify making hefty loans.'

"The article quotes Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff: 'The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion. This is fraud and should be prosecuted'."