Assorted Links

Here are a few unconnected items that I wanted to pass on.

The first is an interesting post from Andrew Ross Sorkin at DealBook that defends Goldman’s ($GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein from the charge of lying to Congress. Sorkin is careful to say that Goldman did a lot of bad things, but if you look at what he said, it stands up to the facts:

Based on the subcommittee’s report, which was referred to the Justice Department, I wrote a column raising questions about Mr. Blankfein’s comments. At the time, his testimony seemed ridiculous in the face of evidence that Mr. Levin presented, which showed that the firm had regularly made large bets against the subprime market.

But upon further reporting — talking with executives at Goldman, who pointed me to other documents, and with officials in Washington, and then poring through the report, following the footnotes to the original sources and then cross-referencing them against other public records — I have come to a different and perhaps unsatisfying conclusion for those readers looking for a big scalp: Mr. Blankfein wasn’t lying.

This is interesting for several reasons. The first is that Goldman is the most prestigious house on Wall Street so anything they do is important. But it’s also noteworthy because Goldman is so widely hated and many of the charges against them are absurd. I have no independent feelings for Goldman but as an investor, I keep my eyes open for opportunities where perception and reality part ways.

The next is Ben Bernanke’s speech the other day. Some people’s reaction to Bernanke is similar to their reaction to Goldman Sachs. There’s plenty of room to criticize the Fed, but I like hearing Bernanke’s speeches. I’m always amazed at the difference between what Bernanke says and what people say he says. He’s very clear about views and what his goals are.

Bernanke is up front that the economy isn’t doing well and he explains why, but he also says that the economy should pick up in the second half of the year. We’ll see. He also goes into a detailed explanation of what’s driving commodity prices higher. The speech is long but it will give you a good idea of what Bernanke thinks.

At the end of Bernanke’s speech, JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon asks a question (well, more like makes a statement):

We’re glad to see Jamie come out of his shell.

Posted by on June 9th, 2011 at 12:21 am


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