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Stacey Vanek-Smith: One bullish spot in all that bearish news, ironically enough, Goldman Sachs. The investment bank added two-thirds of a percent yesterday. That despite the fact most of its executives spent the day on Capitol hill getting grilled by lawmakers on accusations of fraud. Nancy Marshall Genzer has that story.
Nancy Marshall Genzer: The Goldman Sachs executives answered questions from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for almost 11 hours. The panel’s chairman, Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, asked again and again if the executives thought they did anything wrong. Again and again, the bankers said no. Goldman is accused of betting against its clients, selling them investments it knew were shaky.
Carl Levin: You were making a lot of money betting against securities that you were selling to customers. That is, I think, intolerable. There’s a fundamental conflict of interest.
Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein told the subcommittee that clients who bought risky investments from Goldman were sophisticated enough to know exactly what they were doing. He says they were looking for risk and “that’s what they got.”
This wasn’t a trial, but legal questions about Goldman’s conduct will continue in court. The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued the investment bank, saying it defrauded investors.
In Washington, I’m Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.
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