Goldman Sachs Scandal: The Whole System Is Toxic

April 20, 2010 (LPAC)—Calls for the investigation of Goldman Sucks are spreading rapidly, after the April 16 announcement by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charging the venerable Wall Street shark firm with fraud in the fabrication and marketing of mortgage-backed CDOs. The German and British governments both announced that they have asked the SEC for information, and will open their own investigations—in particular since a British bank (RBS) and a German bank (IBK) were among those fleeced.

In the U.S., the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Carl Levin (D-MI), has announced that they are planning to focus hearings scheduled for next week at least in part on Goldman Sachs's role in the financial disaster, saying that they have uncovered new documents, and that "another big shoe [will] drop on Goldman." Congressmen De Fazio and Cummings have also called for hearings.

Nor is this scandal limited to the richly-deserving Goldman Sachs. According to the Financial Times, the SEC in 2009 had indicated that they were investigating Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and UBS as well.

Sucks is expected to release their first quarter 2010 earnings report today, and they will reportedly announce profits of $10 billion, of which $5 billion will be handed out to top executives as bonuses. That should make them even more popular with the already enraged U.S. population. In fact, one wonders how it is possible that Sucks executives have not been lynched already.