Ted Cruz, Senator from Goldman Sachs

While running for his U.S. Senate seat in 2012, Texas Republican Ted Cruz failed to disclose a $500,000 campaign loan from Goldman Sachs, reports the New York Times. That’s especially awkward since Ted’s missus, Heidi Nelson Cruz, is a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs in Houston. In fact, Chad Sweet, Cruz 2016 presidential campaign manager, worked for Goldman Sachs for 10 years. Candidate Cruz has recently tried to distance himself from Goldman as part of his hardly credible populist pose.

Besides that sizeable low-interest loan from his wife’s bosses, Mr. Cruz apparently got one from Citibank, too. Other campaigns have been fined for failing to make such disclosures to the FEC. The Cruz campaign’s response to the Times story: “Ooops.”

More:

“Ted Cruz Hates ‘New York Values’ But Sure Loves New York Money,” Jon Schwarz, The Intercept

“Ted Cruz’s Loan from Goldman Sachs Was a Bullish Bet on the Obama Economy,” David Nir, AlterNet

Related:

“Goldman Sachs Will Pay $5 Billion To Settle Financial-Crisis Claims,” Jim Zarroli, NPR News

“The Great American Bubble Machine,” Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

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Goldie for President!

“Goldman Sachs, the global investment bank and financial services firm, announced Friday morning that it is running for president of the United States.”

“… the conglomerate will forgo donations altogether and instead finance the campaign with a portion of the $10 billion in taxpayer-funded bailout money the investment bank received in 2009. “

— “Goldman Sachs announces presidential run,” K.M. Breay, Salon

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Goldman Gambles on — and With — Facebook

Goldman Sachs once gambled with other people’s money in an unregulated market in mortgage-backed securities of dubious value. Bailed out with billions of taxpayer dollars, the company seems to have learned its lesson. Goldman Sachs is now gambling with other people’s money in an unregulated market in shares of social media company Facebook.

Since Facebook is privately held, isn’t openly traded, and really doesn’t make cash profits, there is no way to value shares of … whatever it is that is thought to comprise the firm’s assets. If shares are sold to no more than 499 parties, the transactions are not subject to regulation, and may be legally traded in yet another shadow market.

Face it: the only thing this country can manufacture these days is bad business deals.

Penny-Ante Fine for Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs Group agreed to pay $550 million in federal fines and damages after misleading investors. That’s what Goldman earns in two weeks, points out the Washington Post‘s  Matt Miller.

Goldman admitted only that its marketing information about the Abacus deal could have been a bit clearer (or weasel words to that effect). The Wall Street firm’s stock price rose after the announcement, adding more than $3 billion to Goldman’s market value, so the payout essentially made the firm $2.5 billion in one day.

There. That should teach them.

Monstrous News From Wall Street

Goldman Sachs claims it didn’t know the housing market would collapse. That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

There are indications it was otherwise. A 2007 email by Goldman’s Fabrice Tourre says the index used in trading subprime mortgage derivatives is “like Frankenstein” turning against its creators.  Email from other execs outlines strategies for Goldman to make money betting against its own failing securities.

The firm released its own raft of emails as evidence of corporate ignorance and indecision. That should inspire confidence on The Street.

More:

“Goldman executives cheered housing market’s decline, newly released e-mails show,” Zachary A. Goldfarb, Washington Post.

 

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SEC: Goldman Cheated

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Goldman Sachs with defrauding investors with a collateralized debt obligation (CDO) based on subprime mortgages. Goldman failed to disclose that it structured these unregulated instruments in partnership with a hedge fund that was also shorting these securities — betting against them. The CDOs failed to the tune of $1 billion, and investors and bond insurer MBIA were stuck holding the bag. Goldman made $15 million on the deal; the hedge fund made $1 billion when the CDOs went bad.

Goldman Sachs: ‘What Recession?’

Goldman Sachs helped alleviate economic suffering by donating  $16.2 billion to needy investment bankers. Its own. Company executives also committed a whopping 3% of that amount to help struggling small businesses. Strange; we thought New Yorkers always tipped 20%.

Goldman Sachs was saved from certain doom by the generosity of U.S. taxpayers, many of whom are now unemployed thanks to the machinations of Goldman Sachs. The company paid back the $10 billion in federal TARP funds that saved its assets. Why not? $12.9 billion of AIG’s federal bailout funds were paid directly to Goldman Sachs.

 

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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