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.
NotionsCapital 