Oregonrain

The Fourth Branch of the U.S. Government: Goldman Sachs?

Lets face it..the Goldman gang is running the place. There is no question about it in my mind. What to do is the question.

Goldman Sachs: Why Aren't Trading Profits Raising Any Red Flags?

This one goes way over the head of a small business person in Oregon. Could someone try to give a brief ( or otherwise) explanation or point to a link that does. What I have been able to tell...GS is using a special position/ government program or NYSE "program" to in essence screw the little guy. Wow that never happens.

My understanding is that the goal is to push equity prices up in order (at least in part) to allow the financial service companies (especially GS) to do their deleveraging at inflated sale prices. Who would have thunk that??? Thanks.

Want to Reform Wall St.? Bring Back Partnership Investment Banks

I agree with this article. Others have made the same comment.

But it appears that once the individuals balance sheet was no longer on the line this "freed them up" to become a good deal more "innovative" I think the term was.

Funny how people behave very differently when it is their own money on the line and not OPM. This is a concept that as a small buiness person I am very familiar with. No small business person would or was allowed to lever up their balance sheets 30 or 40 to 1. It is insane. Yet...this was the standard operating procedure it seems on Wall Street.

Another Big Bank Failure: More Likely Than Not to Occur

I understand that Buffett has three "buckets" when he looks at making an investment. Yes, No and too complex.

I have done reasonably well in both shorting and then going long with WFC now and again. I think that the government overlay here makes these investments "too complex" at least for me.

There are a lot of people that believe as this writer does that the banks are still hiding lots of I think "garbage" would be the polite term on their balance sheets. So the risk of another large failure cannot be written off. However, I think that letting Lehman fail and the aftermath of that convinced a lot of government and policy types that the alternative of letting a big financial institution fail is just too scary right now. Crap they rescued GMAC..when not many people were looking. I do not see them letting another large one go anytime soon.

SEC Bans Shorting Financials

I really wish I could think of something truly funny in a black humor sort of way...like many of the fine posts here and other places on Seeking Alpha. But, all I can see is the Bush administration going out in a blaze of insanity here. Paulson and Bernake seem to have taken over the government as the Congress and the people sit there with our eyes and mouths open (drooling) not quite forming a word...(whaaaaat!)

The Brightest Stars in the Commodities Boom, Part I

Moose...what are you thinking....the hat is his brand! It is cooler than crap too!

In the Wake of Bear: I-Bank Regulation Now in Fed's Hands

This is a well reasoned argument. I am but a very small business person from...well... But, it seems to me that if the Fed is going to go racing around with what in essence is taxpayer money to provide "emergency" equity funding to an investment bank then Wall Street will have to accept that regulations that come with the "help." I am thinking the argument about "game over" for Hedge Funds is correct.