See Also: US media on Goldman Sachs
US bank Goldman Sachs has announced its profit for the first quarter of 2010 has nearly doubled. The news of what has been called "spectacular figures" followed claims by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday that the bank had defrauded investors during the sub-prime housing crisis. Here is how a selection of US media has reacted to both announcements.
the "Goldman schadenfreude that began erupting with news of the SEC's fraud suit Friday has become as large a force, in its own way, as the volcanic ash over Europe" and that he himself is not immune to it:
"I can't wait to open the papers or troll online to see what fresh shoe has dropped. Gordon Brown says Goldman seems 'morally bankrupt'? More fraud charges on Wall Street look imminent? Some days it's just good to be alive!"
the public anger the profit could incite. She told Good Morning America that Goldman Sachs' reputation was at stake.
"What makes people mad in the first place is Goldman makes so much money. Could it get more outrageous?"
also comments on the growing momentum to "do something real to take on the big banks on Wall Street". He says that people are taking to the streets.
"We have to keep the pressure on these bank behemoths in many different ways. The SEC action against Goldman Sachs is very encouraging, but we have to keep pushing both the SEC and the Department of Justice to be very aggressive in taking on what prosecutors call control fraud: fraud that emanates from the top executives who control these companies."
. Listening in to Goldman Sach's quarterly earnings call, Mr Fernholz noticed an analyst complaining that Goldman wasn't making enough money.
"It's just a little taste of the kind of pressure Wall Street firms are under to turn high profits and the pernicious incentives such a system creates."
that the bank is under such pressure it has reached into the ranks of the Obama White House alumni "for some political protection".
"Former White House counsel Greg Craig has been hired to advise the Wall Street giant after it was charged by the government last Friday with fraud and misleading its own investors."
She says that while federal ethics rules prohibit lobbying, Mr Craig may be in the clear as long he does not contact the White House.
what they call the unlikely ally Goldman Sachs has hired to launch "an aggressive response to its political and legal challenges".
"Whatever the reason for his hiring, Craig will presumably be a key player in the intricate counterattack Goldman Sachs officials in Washington and Manhattan improvised during the weekend - a plan that took clearer shape Monday as Britain and Germany announced that they might conduct their own investigations of the firm."
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