Alphabet Soup of Goldman-Sachs

So, for those who live under a rock, last week the SEC (those guys who fell down on finding Madoff, ya them) have brought charges against Goldman-Sachs.  Now I know it is common to bash Goldman-Sachs for making money these last couple years especially while everyone else is losing tons of money, however it is important to know that not everyone there is evil.  However it does look like questionable things were happening inside the company.

So what are the charges about?  Well I have collected a couple of interesting links for your review:

• Article from the Huffington post.  I would strongly suggest starting here.  This article is fairly accessible and does a good job of reviewing the case against Goldman-Sachs and what they did.  I think in general this article is slightly more 'they are evil and meant to be evil in their actions' than this is 'just unfortunate as a product of doing business' article.  I, in general, do not like a lot of the HuffingtonPost.com articles but I thought this did a good job of explaining the problem.
• From CBS about the breakdown between GS and the SEC.  What I find most interesting is that the commission was split 3-2 on party lines.  Come on people this isn't a partisan issue.  Your job is to protect investors, I really feel like this party lines thing has gone too far when it influences whether or not the SEC brings actions against companies.
• Europe's Response.  You know when blood is in the water more sharks circle.  Governments always want escape goats especially when they were complacent in the problem to begin with.  With so many problems in Europe (think Greece here), it seems like everyone attacks at the same time.
• Overview from a blog at seekingalpha.com.  (If you have never been to this site and invest you are doing yourself no favors.)  This site is mostly people blogging about investing and markets so as you can imagine there has been a lot of postings about this.

It will be interesting to see how this all settles out.  This is a major problem for the markets, trust.  If you can't trust the counterparties then markets breakdown (though you can buy insurance against that).  Your broker should have your interests at heart.  It looks like Goldman-Sachs may not, not that this surprises anyone.

I have not decided if on any level either of the options (GS is guilty or not) is a preferable option.  I think it is terrible that some companies are so big that the government can't police them because they don't have the resources to force compliance (it is well known the SEC 'talks' with large companies to find solutions when they cause problems and not sue them since the SEC doesn't have the resources to win).  No one should be above the law but in the US we seem to be ok with the government not policing the largest companies.  This is a good step in the correct direction.

Update:  Had to add a daily show link for this.  :-)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
These F@#king Guys - Goldman Sachs
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party