Goldman And Justice

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"In a statement late Thursday, the Justice Department said there was “not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution” against Goldman or its employees after a Congressional committee asked prosecutors to examine if the bank had been involved with any illegal acts related to several mortgage deals." S.E.C. and Justice Dept. End Mortgage Investigations Into Goldman, New York Times, August 9, 2012

This is a disgrace!

1. How is it that Goldman Sachs convinced the Justice Department that it was feasible to combine thousands of sub prime mortgage loans that were poorly underwritten into an investment grade quality investment?

2. How is it that Goldman Sachs convinced credit rating agencies, that received fees from Goldman, to give an investment grade rating on securities that were backed by a pool of poorly written loans?

Was the convincing done by logic or by contributions and huge fees? Below might provide a clue. The chart was taken from Opensecrets.org and represents what the top contributors paid Sen.Charles E. Schumer since 1989.

Click on Chart To Enlarge

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