Goldman Sacked

Michigan Democrat Sen. Carl Levin's staff is promising a cavalcade of fun and excitement at hearings on Goldman Sachs later this month...or at least, a big ol' opportunity for some major league financial schadenfreude.

Newsweek's Michael Hirsh:

Washington is suddenly looking very unkind to the firm that used to be known as "Government Sachs." Now the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, is planning to focus hearings scheduled for next week at least in part on Goldman Sachs's role in the financial disaster. Levin's staff has uncovered new documents "that link certain actions to specific people" at Goldman, according to a senior legislative official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official would not divulge the nature of the allegation but said that Levin believes it amounts to "another big shoe to drop on Goldman." Spokespeople for Levin said they were not prepared to discuss the nature of the probe, but his committee has been conducting several weeks of hearings and one is planned for April 27 on "the role of the investment banks." "We expect to have some information tomorrow," spokesman Bryan Thomas said Monday. 

Things appear to be getting worse for GS, not better.  Many on the right are accusing the Obama White House of manipulating the SEC to bring charges against Goldman Sachs now as a political maneuver rather than out of justice.  The Republicans are certainly wasting no time attacking Obama on this, with Judd Gregg leading the way.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, warned members on the other side of the aisle from using the charges for political purposes, saying that it's foolish to trump up the allegations that have not yet been tried in court.

"It's really disingenuous for some people to pursue regulatory reform based off this one instance," he said on MSNBC. "This is a single event, we don't even know what the outcome will be."

Which is funny, because any thinking person would believe the Democrats were pursuing regulatory reform off the instance that financial firms blew our economy apart, necessitating a two trillion dollar package of bailouts and loans at taxpayer expense.  I would think regardless of the outcome of the SEC investigation of Goldman Sachs that reform is still sorely needed to prevent that from happening again.


And it seems that the GOP in the Senate is starting to realize that Mitch McConnell wants them to burn for this.  Not everyone's interested in backing Wall Street right now and not everyone sees blocking this as a winner.

Senators could end up passing a financial regulatory reform bill with 70 votes by Memorial Day, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Monday.

Corker, a member of the Senate Banking Committee who has been intimately involved in negotiations for the bill, predicted a somewhat broad bipartisan tally, and saw it coming before Congress finishes this work period in late May.

"At the end of the day, despite all the rhetoric, I believe that we're going to end up with a 70-vote bill," Corker said during an appearance on MSNBC. "I believe that with all my heart, and I think we'll do it before Memorial Day."

To see that prediction coming from a Republican has got to be a gut punch to Mitch McConnell.  But again, the devil in this bill will certainly be in the details, and much remains to be seen what will be in the final product.  It does appear however that something will pass.