William Cohan: "Money and Power"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-05-24/william-cohan-money-and-power
The collapse of the U.S. housing market in 2007 spawned the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans lost their homes, their jobs, and their faith in the financial markets. Many of Wall Street's biggest investment banks, that helped fuel the mortgage meltdown, went belly-up. In a new book, a former Wall Street insider explains how one of these firms not only survived the crash, but made record profits, thanks to a historic bet it made against the market. The story of how Goldman Sachs came to rule Wall Street, beat the Bubble, and incur the wrath of the American public.
Guests
William Cohan
contributing editor at Vanity Fair, opinion columnist for the New York Times; author of "House of Cards" and "The Last Tycoons"; and former investment banker
Read an Excerpt
From "Money and Power" by William Cohan. Copyright 2011 by William Cohan. All rights reserved. Excerpted by kind permission of Doubleday:
Comments
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If one has their material needs and responsibilities covered, and has sustainable means, gambling can be a pleasant recreation. But what we have is a system where a few have so much power that they can risk the sustenance of tens of millions of families in insane speculation, and then obligate those same families to bail them out when they lose. The rules must change radically for civilization to survive. Global corporate capitalism needs hospice.
Question: Could Mr. Cohan comment on Goldman's corporate code of ethics? Does Goldman have a conflict of interest in its role as an investment bank and as a publicly traded company that invests in stocks and securities for its own profits for its investors? Does Goldman use information derived from services as an investment bank, using insider information, to buy and sell stocks? How does Goldman resolve these conflicts in its code of ethics? Do Goldman's clients take risks by using Goldman for investment banking?
My sister works for Goldman Sachs and she has been treated very well. I often have to rely on her to help me when I am in a bind with daycare for my son because Goldman Sachs is more flexible and receptive to the work life balance than my own company. My impression of Goldman is a forward thinking company working toward attracting and recruiting great women.
Please ask Bill Cohan to discribe these the CDO's as 144 A's. The CDO's can only to sold legally, to "sophisticated investors". Lawsuits against GS may be hurt because of this 144A issue.
Bill & Diane,
two things:
a) Please comment on your opinion of "Too Big to Fail." (For those of us inside the Street game, it was little more than a feature-length commercial for Bloomberg.)
and ...
2) Please talk about the idea that "securitization" is not actually new, but this was a quantum explosion of the funds involved. For example, retail factoring has been a fact of life for many years.
Could Mr. Cohen comment on whether he thinks the Federal Reserve should be dismantled, as suggested by Congressman Ron Paul?
The CDO disaster should teach us that firms like Goldman Sachs are all about taking risks and, in the same breath, hedge against them. If you seek dealings with such firm, you must do your homework before you come to the table. Paulson and Co. understood that.
Read more here:
http://brainmindinst.blogspot.com/2007/12/about-taking-risks.html
Wow, that was one of the most depressing programs I've heard in awhile. Sounds like this giant leach is too big and powerful for anything to be done about it.
We taxpayers and voters might want to think about doing something about this company soon. As we're starting to see, a trillion dollars here, and a trillion there and soon it starts to add up to real money.
GDawg: As Tommy Smothers used to say, "That's what they'd like you to believe." (giant leech, no recourse)
yawn, the truth is everyone who was living beyond their means borrowing, leveraging, whatever, to take advantage of this situation deserves what they got. I never signed a loan contract I did not understand with ease. I have no pity for the borrowers but do have a huge problem with the too big to fail people who did get their way with a very dumb and easily frightened government who bailed these scumbags out.
I have always thought that Goldman was the American arm of the House of Rothchild....Goldman is very global and seems to be right on top of everything ..They must get a lot of help from someone like Rothchild...I am not some conspirity nut .Just a reasonable thinker....