9 March 2010

So, Goldman Sachs......

You may already be aware of the recent UK Parliamentary Committee of enquiry before which Goldman Sachs' Gerald Corrigan testified, in relation to Goldman's involvement in the Greek debt scandal, as follows:

 "With the benefit of hindsight, the standards of transparency could have been and probably should have been higher,"

This should be read in conjunction with the official comment from GS that

 "The Greek government has stated (and we agree) that these transactions were consistent with the European principles governing their use and application at the time."

And also with damning new evidence about the role of Goldman Sachs in the Greek debt scandal came to me in a bizarre dream last night.

Imagined conversation from 2001 (Eurostat operator should sound like Clouseau).

Telephone ringing somewhere in Europe,
"Allo, zeez is Eurostat"
"Hi bud, I'd just like to just get some clearance on a currency swap I'm doing"
"To whom am I speaking?"
"That's not important. Just call me Gerry. I'm just a banker from New York. Listen if I wanted to do a currency swap for some guy that'd be Ok wouldn't it?"
"Well, zat really depends on who you are and who he eez and what ze swap eez. I can out you through to someone"
"No, that's OK. Listen it wouldn't make any difference if the guy was Greek would it?"
"Greek, zey still have ze Drachma, n'est-ce pas? I really think that you need to talk to ze specialist. I am just zee operator 'ere."
"No, that's fine bud. You've been great"
Call ends. A file note is prepared saying "Eurostat formally notified" $ 300 Million in fees ends up in the bank's account
Of course I need to stress that this is just a purely fictional account.....as far as we know!