Goldman Sachs

By Abid Ali in Business on July 16th, 2010
Photo from EPA

It may have been a record fine for a financial institution but it appears investment bank Goldman Sachs got off lightly. The whole affair brings in to question the strength of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s case. 

The “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity” agreed to pay $550 million to settle fraud charges. But crucially it did not admit guilt for misleading clients over subprime mortgage products.

Even the SEC appears to have decided no fraud was committed and accepts Goldman made a “mistake” in its marketing material. It has failed to hold Goldman’s feet to the fire.

What is $550 million to Goldman Sachs? Well, two weeks earnings or the total compensation for about 1000 of its 32,000 employees.

“They pay $550 million and they get an $800 million pop in their share price,” Kevin Caron, market strategist at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. told Reuters.

By John Terrett in Americas on April 21st, 2010
Photo by AFP

When the giant investment bank Lehman Brothers fell, it created the largest bankruptcy filing in US history and helped accelerate the worst global recession in 70 years.
 
Now 19 months later Washington's asking how the firm failed and why it couldn't be saved.
 
Recent revelations have suggested that the true state of Lehman's balance sheet at the time of its collapse was much worse than thought - and that the firm used an accounting "trick" to hide the reality of its books.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who was testifying in Washington DC on Tuesday before a House committee investigating the collapse of the investment bank in 2008, said the failure of Lehman Brothers was "unavoidable".  

By Teymoor Nabili in Business on April 18th, 2010

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.

By Abid Ali in Business on April 17th, 2010
Picture from AFP

Reputation is everything. Ask Tiger Woods. His extra-marital affairs had his sponsors in a tizz. Accounting giant Accenture axed Tiger's multi-million dollar sponsorship deal, as did Pepsi's Gatorade. Bouncing back to become the world's No.1 golfer and restoring his reputation among his peers and onlookers will also take time.

By Abid Ali in Business on March 3rd, 2010
photo from AFP

I would never want to own a football club. It's the only business - and I hesitate to call it that - that the fans (customers) can drive away the franchise owner. And it's shameful that grown men should try to undermine and use fan pressure to drive out the Glazers.

"Initially the Red Knight Group has effectively set a challenge to Manchester United supporters to demonstrate they wish to see an alternative ownership proposal developed," Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United supporters club Must, said.

"In the first instance supporters are being asked to do this simply by joining the free online membership of the Supporters Trust and swelling its ranks to an initial target of at least 100,000 [members]."

Just who are these "Red Knight(s)" that are using the supporters group to oust the current management? 

By Abid Ali in Business on February 15th, 2010
Photo from AFP
Discipline in any team is important. Players pulling in opposite directions can destroy unity – we expect everyone to behave with some moral fiber.  That’s why John Terry lost his England job. But what do you do with a country like Greece that actually lied about its debt problems?
 
 
So what should Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy do? Should they bailout Greece or kick it out of the union? Gordon Brown has been pretty clear: if Greece needs financial help then it should go cap in hand in the International Monetary Fund. But it’s easy for Brown to make such comments his nation is not part of the euro zone.
 
By John Terrett in Americas on February 2nd, 2010
Photo from EPA

The Investment bank Goldman Sachs is facing a storm of criticism over reports its chief executive could pocket a bonus of up to $100m.

By Teymoor Nabili in Business on January 18th, 2010
Photo by EPA

If Goldman Sachs economists are correct, forthcoming data on fourth quarter economic growth in the US will show an unexpectedly large uptick.

The financial media will, of course, leap on the top-line figure and declare that happy days are here again.

Not so fast, say more sober voices.

By Teymoor Nabili in Business on December 26th, 2009
Photo from EPA

The Financial Times "Person of The Year" is Lloyd Blankfein, the head of Goldman Sachs,

a tough, bright, funny (everyone remarks upon his unpretentious, wisecracking manner) financier who reoriented Goldman... [under whom] Its influence has spread throughout the world, from New York and London to Shanghai and São Paulo.

It's an interesting choice. There are many who would argue that - Blankfein's wiseracking notwithstanding - Goldman's influence around the world has been catastrophically destructive and malign at its very core, or as Rolling Stone put it:

By Gabriel Elizondo in Business on November 19th, 2009

What do Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Google all have in common?

Answer: All three companies had lower profits in the third quarter of 2009 than Petrobras and Vale.

Petrobras is Brazil’s massive energy company; you might have heard of it. But unless you live in Brazil or track big companies, you likely have never heard of Vale – the Brazilian mining company.

Photo courtesy of AP

But both companies quietly are shoveling in huge profits. A representation of sort of Brazil’s quick exit from the global economic meltdown.  

Al Jazeera Live

What's Hot


Recent Comments

This work is licensed under Creative Commons. Please read our attribution policy.