Goldman

Springtime for Goldman

Questions about Goldman Sachs' role in the financial meltdown were being asked well before the authorities decided to act.

But the issue of whether this SEC action will actually lead to any meaningful change is something altogether different.

Step one is likely to be an endless debate, buried in legalese and semantic dissembling, wilfully diverted and miconstrued.

By the time the lawyers have done their work normal people will have lost all interest, and even the very definition of the charges will have been lost.

So complex were the transactions that Goldman initiated that even many financial experts couldn't follow them; that's what made the situation so profitable in the first place, and what will draw the sting of any future actions.