Why not? You know you'll never suffer the indignity of having your broker go to jail when he rips your portfolio to shreds and laughs in your face.

In-house-marketed synthetic collateralized debt obligation. In food terms... clearance-shelf Great Value hot dogs.

Wasn't there some news story where the monkey throwing darts did just as good as the Hedge Fund managers after their fee's? But hey atleast you get some frat boy to brown nose you real good and an office that has free cofee and the news on.
/I guess you WOULD have to buy the monkey
/and darts
/and train it to throw darts
/not at you

Isn't $1bn about 5 minutes worth of profit for these guys? So they're being sued for what amounts to a rounding error on their balance sheets. I'm sure that will teach them a lesson! (Assuming they lose, which I wouldn't bet on. They never lose.)

Going to a card table at a casino is more fun, the rate of return is about the same AND you get free booze.

So fark off, Goldman Sachs. I'm going to Vegas.

I'd like to see one of these suits go to trial rather than get settled. I want to see all the Harvard MBAs on the other side, the ones who worked for Basis, get on the stand and explain that they're really just idiots compared to those evil geniuses at Goldman.

A lot of the money Goldman Sachs comes from trading on their own accounts. Accounts they aren't required to divulge the contents of. In other words, they can figure stock A will take a dive, change their position accordingly and make a bundle of money, and not bother to tell any of their clients that stock A is not something to have a long position in.

I finished up The Big Short the other day...

No one at the trading companies were reading the bond disclosures. It was mostly legalum ipsum designed to make the contracts look real. It was a weird time where everyone was investing in CDO's because everyone was investing in CDO's. Well, not a weird time... it was a bubble time.

And how come now I'm wise enough to recognize a bubble and I have the cash to play with I can't find a bubble at a reasonable point to hop on just to hop off part way up? Or can I figure a way to get a long term hedge on the price of gold falling?

Oh, and this gem

The lawsuit by the Basis Yield Alpha Fund alleges fraud, breach of contract and negligence, and seeks to recoup $67 million of losses plus $1 billion of punitive damages.

I know there's gotta be a simple reason to go after the big money. Win one case and the rest go rather quick, until the carcass is picked clean.

wildcardjack: I finished up The Big Short the other day...

No one at the trading companies were reading the bond disclosures. It was mostly legalum ipsum designed to make the contracts look real. It was a weird time where everyone was investing in CDO's because everyone was investing in CDO's. Well, not a weird time... it was a bubble time.

And how come now I'm wise enough to recognize a bubble and I have the cash to play with I can't find a bubble at a reasonable point to hop on just to hop off part way up? Or can I figure a way to get a long term hedge on the price of gold falling?

Oh, and this gem

The lawsuit by the Basis Yield Alpha Fund alleges fraud, breach of contract and negligence, and seeks to recoup $67 million of losses plus $1 billion of punitive damages.

I know there's gotta be a simple reason to go after the big money. Win one case and the rest go rather quick, until the carcass is picked clean.

If you want a long term hedge on gold falling, buy DZZ. It's a gold double short fund. I think it's a really bad call to short gold now, but if you've made your mind up, go for it.

These transactions, the fund said, "provided a vehicle for Goldman to unload its toxic inventory and to profit from the decline in value of the very securities it was recommending that its clients purchase."

This is the reason those OWS folks are (or should be) on Wall Street. That and the ratings agencies that gave AAA ratings to shlock investments. If that's not criminal, then the people that made it legal should be in prison.

I'm not against people making money on a level playing field. These guys obviously aren't and weren't playing on that field.

Goldman Sachs are world-class ripoff artists, stealing $100 million a day by front-running trades using high frequency trading.

They even rip off their own clients and laugh about it.

That's why they have a saying in France. When you rip someone off, they call it "pulling a Goldman."