The Boston Globe's Golden Insults

"Goldman's "secret" isn't a secret at all. Their program trading system, dragged into the light by the arrest of a former programmer, churns the market constantly, capturing a few dollars here and there as the price of targeted stocks fluctuates, raking in $100 million a day for which nothing of value is given back. It is legalized looting on a scale that makes Bernie Madoff's scams look like stealing a few coins from the collection plate. And all of this is paid for by the traders who are not allowed to use programs, the investors who get to the trade windows a second later than Goldman Sachs, and of course, the actual companies being traded." -- Wake the Flock Up "

“What we’re really focused on now is how do we make sure that our markets are free of not only fraud and manipulation but free of the excesses that can come from very concentrated economic actors in these marketplaces’’

Goldman Sachs?

Nope: Panel weighing limits on oil speculation

"Goldman warns of curbing speculation; Bank tells regulators energy markets would be disrupted" by Tina Seeley and Asjylyn Loder, Bloomberg News | July 30, 2009

WASHINGTON - Goldman Sachs Group, the bank that makes the most money from commodities, fixed-income, and currency trading, said attempts to curb speculation may be “disruptive’’ to energy markets.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission hearing in Washington chairman Gary Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs employee, said

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the dominant banks in trading commodities. The two New York-based banks accounted for half of the $15 billion of revenue that the world’s 10 largest banks generated from commodities in 2007, according to an estimate from Ethan Ravage, a financial-services industry consultant in San Francisco. Goldman Sachs doesn’t disclose how much of its revenue comes from commodities.

The business is part of its fixed-income, currencies, and commodities division that generated a record $6.8 billion in the second quarter of 2009. Gensler worked at Goldman Sachs for 18 years, leaving the company after becoming cohead of finance. In 1997, he joined the US Treasury Department under Robert Rubin, another former Goldman Sachs employee.

Gensler said there was a consensus that limits are needed, leaving the commission to answer three questions: What the limits will be, who will set and monitor the limits, and who will be exempt from limits and under what conditions.

Of course, those questions never come up when it is the tyranny of spying, torture, or anti-free speech laws.

--more--"

Related: Government Can't Add When it Comes to Goldman Sachs

The Galling Greed of Goldman Sachs

Update:

"Goldman's Commercial Real Estate Gambit

And much to everyone else’s chagrin, Goldman even made money off the housing meltdown when some of its hedges — specifically a bet that a subprime mortgage index would plunge — paid off handsomely. It appears Goldman is following a similar script with U.S. commercial real estate, the next big asset class that many believe is on the verge of disaster.