Broken Britain © fintag

Today's shorts:
TFG: What is a swap? (bloomberg)
Banks demand opaqueness and bilateral trading (efinancialnews)
Paulson: I am no Madoff (bloomberg)

Today's longs:
Obama: health care, wall street and green policies; wall street next (telegraph)
Goldman gives huge bonus to Fabrice (cityam)
Mediocre Britain Stays Broken (bbc)

News comments:
So will Goldman really pay out for its misdemeanors in the CDO markets? It's been known for years that Goldman make their money from timing differences. They come out with research reports that say go long and they then short like crazy. Goldman hedges its risks and dumps them onto its clients. That is what investment banks do.

I thought they would be "done" for something else but CDOs and a Paulson trade? I don't think they will get too worried.

There are more important worries out there:

Will I die from Icelandic ash inhalation?
Quite likely.

Will the next PM of the UK be a Paul Smith lovin' liberal democrat?
I hope so. My funds are in USD.

Will Germany, as I have predicted in the past, leave the Euro?
I hope so as we all miss the FX fun of last century.

Will Goldman Sachs delist faster than it planned and turn itself into a hedge fund?
Yes. They have been planning this for months.

Will Jim Cramer sue the SEC for libel after it accuses thestreet.com of being inept?
Who is Jim Cramer?

Of course most of the media are as shit is shit [Editor:uh?]. Trying to find a US lawyer that is not conflicted to sue Goldman is near impossible - most IBs hire most of the top lawyers so they cannot be sued by them. And of course most of the US courts are chocker blocked with madoff and other credit crunch cases, so it maybe years before we find out any outcome unless of course Obama bumps them up the line for political purposes. Which he will. And what about finding unbias jurors? For Goldman, that will be near impossible.

More importantly Ben Bernanke won't be allowed to be Goldman's next CEO.

Goldman Sachs needs to change its name. Something like Cuddly Kittens or the God Deserves Better Bank. That should make their problems go away.

Backdoor pass:
So can someone tell me what Goldman are doing with a fantasy world cup league? If you have a password, you can see it at gs360.com. Otherwise you can just see a logon screen to a backdoor entrance to the bank everyone hates.