Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Goldman Profits Up on Short Sales of Goldman

OK, the headline is completely fictional, I think. I just re-read some articles about how Goldman Sachs was at the heart of creating so many toxic mortgage securities and how watching its former head (Treasury Secretary Paulson) pining for $700 billion of taxpayer money to clean up the mess is disgraceful. One of the points that came out again was the fact the Goldman came away from the whole mortgage crisis relatively unscathed from a profit point of view because it was shorting that market heavily as the crisis unfolded. Now, of course, regulators have prohibited short sales in Goldman stock to prevent Goldman's stock from collapsing and there is a witch hunt going on to find those evil short sellers. Wouldn't it be an absolute riot if it turns out Goldman was one of them?

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I never understood the "moral implications" (with lack of a better way to state it) behind short selling. Selling something to someone that you do not possess, it seems ripe for creating unhealthy eddies in a free market economy.