Transcript Excerpts
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour moderator): Roger Lowenstein, that line from Senator Levin early on that we heard about the conduct of all Wall Street being in question, how much of this was about Goldman, how much about a larger picture? What did -- what did you hear going on today?
ROGER LOWENSTEIN, author, "The End of Wall Street": Jeff, I really think that Levin hit the nail on the head. It really is a question about all of Wall Street. It's not whether Goldman defrauded its customers so much. The courts will decide that.
It's not even Goldman's reputation, which, presumably, in time, will recover. But Goldman, like other firms, structured billions -- tens of billions of securities that added absolutely nothing to the economy. They contributed nothing to real estate. They didn't put a single American in their homes -- in new homes. They just allowed people to take bets.
And, when the mortgage bubble collapsed, they greatly aggravated the losses and the damage done. These firms are running what were in fact casinos. They were off-track betting parlors for the American mortgage industry.
And the question for Congress is, which they have been posed for now 12 years and have been ignored, are they finally going to get these derivative instruments under regulation?
JEFFREY BROWN: Greg Zuckerman, there were many variations on a constant theme here, questions like, who exactly is Goldman serving? What are these -- who and what are these trades for? What is your responsibility to your client? On and on and on.
What were they really trying to get at here?
GREGORY ZUCKERMAN, author, "The Greatest Trade Ever": Well, Goldman, like many other firms, has transformed from an investment banking firm with some trading, to a real trading house with some banking on the side.
And America gets to see the real Goldman Sachs today, which is an investment -- a firm that will sell many things to clients, even things, even securities that it itself doesn't believe in. And the argument is, well, it's like someone comes in for an ugly suit. If they want to buy then it, we will sell it to them. The store owner doesn't look so great, and Goldman Sachs doesn't come off looking so good today either.
This is a prime example of Wallstreet ethics, we'll sell you anything.
This is EXACTLY how ye-old Used Car Salesman got their rotten reputation. Sell the unsuspecting shopper anything, including a lemon.
It is the philosophy of "we have no responsibility to protect customers from bad products (and know they're bad) that we offer." They have no ethical problem with that.
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