“Goldman” on The Daily Caller

(Bloomberg) — A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) trader and his father were accused by U.S. regulators of making illegal trades based on confidential information related to the Wall Street firm’s exchange-traded fund investments. (more)

Daniel S. Loeb, the hedge fund manager, was one of Barack Obama’s biggest backers in the 2008 presidential campaign. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein has reaped a $6.1 million gain by cashing in more than 90,000 stock options before they expired in November. (more)

There will never be another s— deal at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday approved the deal calling for Goldman Sachs & Co. to pay $550 million to settle civil fraud charges that the Wall Street giant misled buyers of mortgage-related investments. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Resolving a high-profile government case linked to the mortgage meltdown, Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay a record $550 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of complex investments. (more)

Will AIG pay back its bailout? It depends on whom you listen to. During Wednesday’s hearing at the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the government folks and AIG’s chief executive spent most of their time discussing why the AIG bailout was warranted and how things are getting better. They suggested that AIG may be able to pay off some debts, thanks to the sale of two foreign life insurance subsidiaries, by the end of the year. The managing director of insurance ratings at Standard & Poor’s suggested that the agency may lower the already-low rating of AIG if its operating performance does not improve. The managing director of property and casualty insurance research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods noted that the company recently downgraded common shares of AIG to underperform and established a price target of $6 — despite yesterday’s closing market price of $34 for AIG. If that weren’t bad enough, 20 percent of Prudential UK shareholders announced that they plan to vote against the $35.5 billion takeover of AIG’s life insurance subsidiary. (more)

The glitch: Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld has said several factors contributed to last week’s near-1,000-point drop in the Dow: “I think it was a confluence of factors led by the marcro-economic environment, the futures market and then the listed market for those stocks.” Regulators originally thought a trading glitch may have caused the market to freefall, but Greifeld believes that was only one aspect. The fear that financial unrest in Greece could be spreading to other European countries, and heightened activity in the futures market that spilled into the equity market contributed to the issue. On Thursday, 27 U.S. stocks dropped more than 90 percent as U.S. equities tumbled, before recovering by the close. More than 285 securities rose or fell more than 60 percent during the stock-market’s plunge and will have these trades canceled. On Sunday, Nasdaq added another 12 stocks to the list of trades it was canceling following Thursday’s sudden market plunge. (more)

Fiduciary duty: A Senate Judiciary Committee panel reportedly will hold hearings suggesting that investment firms and broker-dealers should have a fiduciary duty in their interactions with clients — meaning that companies would have to look out for clients’ “best interests.” Under present law, such companies only have to determine whether particular investments are “suitable” for the buyer. The extent and details of such duties are unclear to many in Congress. Most of the fireworks at the 11-hour Senate grilling of Goldman last week revolved around senators’ disbelief that Goldman could sell an investment while taking a counter-position in the firm’s own investments. The irony is thick, then, as the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that some members of Congress used their own money to make risky bets that U.S. stocks or bonds would fall during the financial crisis. (more)

End of the financial reform stalemate. Republicans announced that they had achieved resolution of bailout loopholes on the financial regulatory reform bill Wednesday afternoon. “Now that bipartisan negotiations have ended, it is my hope that the majority’s avowed interest in improving this legislation on the Senate floor is genuine and the partisan gamesmanship is over,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, in a statement. After failing to move forward on Monday and Tuesday on the financial reform bill by the exact same vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, scheduled another vote on Wednesday which was promptly defeated as well. The count Wednesday was 56-42 with Senator Nelson, Nebraska Democrat, and Reid voting against the measure. Reid’s “no” vote allows him to bring it up again. A vote later Wednesday, after Democrats threatened to hold an all-night session, succeeded in getting Republicans to drop their filibuster. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defending his company under blistering criticism, the CEO of Goldman Sachs testily told skeptical senators Tuesday that customers who bought securities from the Wall Street giant in the run-up to a national financial crisis came looking for risk “and that’s what they got.” (more)

Financial reform: the first vote – Reuters reports that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) broke with party ranks on Monday and voted against opening Senate debate on a financial reform bill. Nelson’s action means that the Democrats lack the votes to go forward and that the bill will be blocked, at least for now. Democrats must pickup at least two Republicans to prevail and clear the way for consideration of the bill. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Monday morning the Republicans had the 41 votes they needed to stop Democrats from beginning debate on the Senate floor on a bill to overhaul financial regulation, but he suggested it was unclear how long the GOP unity would last.“I believe that 41 Republicans – for right now – are going to stand together. I wish we’d stand together, period.” Republicans know that there is a significant political price to pay for opposing financial reform; even if the opposition may be well intentioned. According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll out Monday, 65% of adults surveyed nationwide said they support regulatory reform, while 31 percent oppose it. Sixty-nine percent said in the poll that they support “increasing federal oversight of the way banks and other financial companies make consumer loans, such as mortgages and auto loans, and issue credit cards.” (more)

American International Group Inc. may be required to pay to defend lawsuits against Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s top executives, including Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, under directors and officers insurance policies held by the company. (more)

Plutocracy, rule by the rich, is not named for Pluto, god of death, but his spoiled son, Plutus, the personification of wealth. The juxtaposition of a dead economy and bank billionaires makes this lineage apt. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — As the U.S. housing turned downward in January 2007, a Goldman Sachs trader wrote in e-mails to a woman he apparently was courting that investments he had sold were “like Frankenstein turning against his own inventor.” (more)

Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, one of Wall Street’s closest friends in Congress, has a message for his longtime supporters who fear the financial-sector regulation bill: Get over it. It’s going to pass. (more)

It is so sad it’s almost funny when a majority political party thinks if they name legislation something positive, the negative aspects will not be examined. There is no debate against the fact that our financial services system is damaged. With remaining scars from Goldman Sacs, Bernie Madoff and others, there is a need for reform. However, the democrats’ definition of such as seen through this recent bill begs to differ from what is really required for us to escape the continuing turmoil of recession. (more)

The man who takes Sachs of gold is the man who makes the rules. President Obama is that man, and Republicans in Congress should demand an independent special prosecutor to investigate the relationship between gold and rulemaking in the executive branch. With nearly a million dollars of Goldman Sachs money in his hip pocket (rendering that institution his most generous ’08 corporate campaign contributor), Obama appears to be ignoring some serious rule-breaking. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government on Friday accused Wall Street’s most powerful firm of fraud, saying Goldman Sachs & Co. sold mortgage investments without telling the buyers that the securities were crafted with input from a client who was betting on them to fail. (more)

With the president’s signature on the health care bill Tuesday, roughly 50 percent of the U.S. economy has fallen under the purview of the federal government. (more)