Senate Releases Damaging Goldman Sachs Emails From 2007 Mortgage Crisis

by Frances Martel | 4:34 pm, April 24th, 2010

» 3 comments

The Senate investigation into Goldman Sachs’ economic successes during the 2007 subprime mortgage crises has now resulted in the release of emails late in that year that prove Sachs was deliberately betting against the housing market to make money while the rest of the market fell.

CEO Lloyd Blankfein is quoted in a November 2007 email related to a New York Times story as stating “we didn’t dodge the mortgage mess. We lost money, then made more than we lost because of shorts. Also, it’s not over, so who knows how it will turn out ultimately.” Other executives make several references to shorts, which at one point made them $50 million in one day while the rest of the market was crashing, as well as what CFO David Viniar called “the big short,” which the NYT reports made the company $373 million. There are also some miscellaneous unflattering quotes, like openly stating “looks like we will make some serious money,” “looks like we are in a good position,” and a “good news/bad news” email that makes it clear that they were aware that betting against clients was both hurting the clients and helping the business.

Below is a PDF of all the emails currently released. The Senate investigations subcommittee has promised the release of several more on Monday; we’ll have them for you as they come in.

Goldman Sachs Emails

Banking, David Viniar, economic collapse, Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, Mortgage Crisis, Senate investigation, shorts

felixw

Thousands of investors every day purchase put options, write call options, sell short and engage in other perfectly legal investment strategies that create profits only if the market or individual security drops in price. No surprise that Goldman Sachs did this. So does every other investment group on the planet.

It’s hard to believe that this is the best that the government can come up with against Goldman Sachs after 18 months of investigation.
http://online-remi.com Ari Gold

yes it’s really hard to believe this, but i think they will find something elese
Annette

If politicians were required to be history savvy, they would realize that this is just a replay of the robber barons of the 19th century. Among other laws enacted, there should be a top to the amount of CEO/Administrate pay and bonuses. I suggest that no corporate heads should be paid no more than 500% of their lowest paid employee AND NO GOLDEN UMBRELLAS. If I messed up I would be shown the door. AND if any fraud, abuse, etc. is found, the guilty ones (crooks) should have ALL of their assets seized. Let them live in cold water walk-ups and stand in breadlines.