“The Goldman Sachs Group” on The Daily Caller

A blue-ribbon panel investigating the financial crisis will put Goldman Sachs executives on the hot seat next week, along with officials from American International Group Inc., the big insurance conglomerate. (more)

The inevitable pictures of pelicans covered in oil finally surfaced, solidifying this oil spill as the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. We have not seen this many pictures of unintelligent animals covered in oil since the first season of “Jersey Shore.” (more)

Financial Reform Bill - House and Senate conferees will formally meet on Thursday to work on the compromise language between the financial reform bill passed by each.  But POLITICO reports that work on final language is already well under way, with ferocious lobbying and electoral politics both playing a role in the process.  They report that players on all sides of the contentious debate over the biggest piece of financial regulatory reform since the Great Depression are fully engaged in a fierce final round of lobbying and negotiation before a final bill is sent to President Obama, which is expected by the end of the month.  Republican conferees are scheduled to meet on Tuesday to coordinate their plans to revise the bills. One senior Democratic conferee has other problems to consider as, Sen. Lincoln (D-Ark) enlists the support of former president Clinton to help in her tight battle in a primary run-off.  Senator Lincoln is the author of controversial language that could force Wall Street banks to spin off lucrative derivatives trading operations, and the prospects of that provision remaining will demand on Tuesdays run-off. (more)

Financial crises can be very difficult events to understand. Even for those who have spent a great deal of time studying such areas as finance and economics, comprehension of these disasters can be elusive. However, analyzing shared elements in the recent American and Greek financial crises can help give even the economic layman insight into their common causes. (more)

One year ago, General Motors, once the largest and richest company in the country if not the world, entered into an emergency bankruptcy that cost billions of dollars, eliminated thousands of jobs, closed hundreds of dealerships, ended several product lines, left stockholders and debt holders with huge losses and gave the U.S. Treasury a majority share of the company. Now, some commentators are claiming that the auto rescue has been a success. (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)

Senate conferees named: The Senate on Tuesday named 12 conferees to reconcile legislative differences between the upper and lower chambers’ financial reform bills. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, will serve as chairman of the conference negotiations, which Democrats aim to complete before the July 4 recess. House members are expected to be named next week. The seven Senate Democrats are Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut; Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Sens. Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Charles Schumer of New York, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Tom Harkin of Iowa. The Republicans are Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. (more)

In a last-ditch effort to pass a global-warming bill before this year’s mid-term election drastically alters the political landscape in Congress, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) have introduced the “American Power Act.” (more)

More short bans? The Financial Times reports that European politicians have proposed a complete ban on naked short selling, significantly widening the German ban last week on naked short-selling of European government bonds, credit default swaps and some stocks. Last week, the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee proposed a total ban on naked short selling – the process of selling a financial instrument that is neither owned nor borrowed by the vendor. The move is not supported by all European regulators; last year the UK’s FSA said that naked short selling provides some “legitimate behaviour which can provide beneficial market impacts.” This could lead to confrontation in European markets as Germany did not signal its ban to the markets and refused to back down when other E.U. members protested the ban. Business reaction has been stronger. The chief currency strategist at BNP Paribas reportedly said: “As a German citizen, I wish to apologise for the stupidity of my government.” (more)

With months of closed doors meeting and cutting deals with industry, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) finally unveiled their cap-and-trade bill. After helping to craft the bill, this bill contains many giveaways to industry and the end result is this bill that will increase the cost of every aspect of business and cost every individual citizen to turn on the lights and put gas in the car. (more)

Goldman Sachs overlord Lloyd Blankfein is so rich, he bought his $26 million “Master of the Universe” duplex at 15 Central Park West in cash before finally selling his five-bedroom, seven-bath prewar duplex at 941 Park Ave. Blankfein just accepted an offer on that apartment, reports The Post’s Jennifer Gould Keil. (more)

Financial reform next steps: There have been reports that Democratic leaders are looking to move the financial reform bill, possibly with a vote to end debate as early as Monday, and a vote on the bill itself Tuesday. Late Thursday, it appeared that votes would continue through the night. Amendments will continue to be filed Friday, but no votes are expected. More Senate votes are scheduled for Monday and, “We’ll be in until at least the early part of next week,” according to Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, Connecticut Democrat. Reconciliation of any Senate bill with the December House bill, may progress very differently than it did for health-care bill, where the House simply approved the bill that the Senate passed. In the case of financial reform, the plan may be for a formal “conference,” perhaps televised, with House and Senate leaders and administration officials discussing, debating and making changes. Both the House and Senate must vote again before it can be sent to President Obama. (more)

Every month I receive a financial statement from one of the Wall Street behemoth firms. The raw materials used in the mailing—paper and stamps—are generally worth more than my account balance. (more)

There are only three things you need to know about the Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill that was released Wednesday—it will accomplish nothing for the environment; it will cost a lot of money and it will financially enrich and politically empower a host of scoundrels. (more)

Editor’s Note: Daily Caller High is a group of young writers cutting their teeth in the world of political punditry. This week, the authors’ reflect on events of the past few weeks. (more)

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs looked genuinely irritated Monday, telling reporters in his office that President Obama did not intend for news of Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court to be leaked to the press Sunday evening. (more)

Libertarian Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” movement has gained the support of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and conservative Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). At the same time, anarchists in Greece riot against fiscal austerity measures, while organs of the strongest government on the planet—namely, the U.S. Justice Department and SEC—accuse Goldman Sachs of skullduggery. (more)

Despite its legal woes, the Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs bolstered its reputation as a money-making machine by producing a “perfect” first quarter of 2010 with a net gain from its trading floor on every single day, a feat it has never achieved before. (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)

It seems to be in the nature of human beings to look to assign blame when something goes wrong in our lives. That blame game gets amplified when Washington get involved, often inciting a “gang-with-pitchforks” mentality to deflect from their own culpability. Political scapegoating is easy; it’s the fixes that are tough. (more)