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Goldman Sachs Saves the Teamsters?

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This is a strange story. Bloomberg headlined, Goldman Sachs Helps YRC Avert Bankruptcy Following Hoffa’s Plea as if Goldman Sachs saved America's largest trucking company from default.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. helped YRC Worldwide Inc. complete a debt swap to avert bankruptcy after the Teamsters union said the bank was trying to profit from a failure of the largest U.S. trucker by sales.

A group consisting of Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank AG, Aristeia Capital LLC, Silverback Asset Management and a Smith Management LLC unit, “got us over the goal line by going into the market, buying bonds and tendering them,” YRC Chief Executive Officer Bill Zollars said yesterday.

The Peddling of Toxic Waste, otherwise known as CDOs being investigated

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Seems the SEC is just catching up to the finance blogs.

The New York Times article, Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against it and Won (great title, about sums it all up!) outlines some new investigations.

Goldman was not the only firm that peddled these complex securities — known as synthetic collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s — and then made financial bets against them, called selling short in Wall Street parlance. Others that created similar securities and then bet they would fail, according to Wall Street traders, include Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley, as well as smaller firms like Tricadia Inc., an investment company whose parent firm was overseen by Lewis A. Sachs, who this year became a special counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.

We're Back - Cap & Trade Based on Derivatives

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Just when you think the fictional economy cannot get any worse, we get this. The Cap & Trade is based on a new derivatives market. Oh gee! Just what the nation needs, yet another fictional mathematics market so a few traders can put the entire global economy at risk!

The banks are preparing to do with carbon what they’ve done before: design and market derivatives contracts that will help client companies hedge their price risk over the long term. They’re also ready to sell carbon-related financial products to outside investors.

Goldman Sachs Economic Forecast unemployment peaking in 2011

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Yes, not 2010, that's 2011, according to an economic forecast by Goldman Sachs.

On James Pethokoukis Reuter's blog, is Goldman Sachs 2011 forecast would be an absolute disaster for Dems. Contained within are leaked Goldman Sachs economic predictions:

The key features of our 2011 outlook:

  1. a strengthening in growth from 2.1% on average in 2010 to 2.4% in 2011, with real GDP rising at an above-potential 3½% pace in late 2011
  2. A peaking in unemployment in mid-2011 at about 10.75%
  3. extremely low inflation – close to zero on a core basis during 2011
  4. a continuation of the Fed’s (near) zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) throughout 2011.

Hank Paulson & Goldman Sachs Played Telephone During Crisis

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The New York Times has a detailed account of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and phone calls to Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis.

During the week of the A.I.G. bailout alone, Mr. Paulson and Mr. Blankfein spoke two dozen times, the calendars show, far more frequently than Mr. Paulson did with other Wall Street executives.

On Sept. 17, the day Mr. Paulson secured his waivers, he and Mr. Blankfein spoke five times. Two of the calls occurred before Mr. Paulson’s waivers were granted.

The New York Times even charted the calls and timeline.