Monday, December 28, 2009

How Goldman Secretly Bet on the U.S. Housing Crash

AlterNet


By Staff, AlterNet
Posted on December 25, 2009, Printed on December 28, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/144810/

From McClatchy -- (h/t Crooks & Liars) In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.

Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk....

© 2009 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/144810/

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