Tag Archives: shorting

Stacy Summary: ‘Arson?’  Or, ‘simple hedge?’  We’ll be asking Janet Tavakoli this on the Keiser Report in the New Year.  In the meantime, your thoughts . . .

• Goldman denies betting against its clients on CDOs

Update: (Janet Tavakoli just emailed this in response to the above article)

From her website:

Goldman Sachs recently acknowledged that I warned (using fact based analysis) about these grave risks at the time it manufactured value-destroying CDOs, but it said my opinion was in the “minority.” Goldman would have you believe it the financial equivalent of a member of the Flat Earth Society in the lifetime of Galileo Galilei. Just as a competent long-distance navigator does not care how many nonprofessionals are members of the flat earth society, one does not rely on whether an opinion is in the minority or majority as a basis for performing appropriate due diligence when underwriting a securitization. A reasonable man expects a long-distance navigator to have some competence in his craft, and a reasonable man can expect a certain level of competence (and standards) from underwriters. A basic investigation of the underlying collateral revealed grave risks–not reflected by the ratings–compounded by suspect securitization practices. Public money was used to bailout AIG in an extraordinary crisis, and the general public are not sophisticated investors. The argument that AIG was a sophisticated investor no longer applies as a reason to avoid consequences of this behavior.

• Janet Tavakoli:  Responding to Goldman Sachs