This is ridiculous

I just watched a portion of the Senate hearing at which the representatives of Goldman Sachs are testifying. What utter nonsense! The one thing that is clear from the hearing is that most of the senators have no idea what it is that Goldman Sachs actually does. Indeed, most of the so-called questions from the senators could have been asked equally as well by a two year old. My particular favorite is the repeated reference to protecting the investing public in connection with deals like the one at issue in the fraud case brought by the SEC. The reality is that there were in essence only three very large investors involved in a deal for many many millions of dollars. These investors were all informed and experienced in deals like this one. The choice of the instruments that made up the synthetic security which was sold in the deal was not a mystery to anyone involved in the deal. A subsidiary of the buyer of a majority of the deal had final say over what went into the package. The seller got to recommend instruments for the package, but the buyer only accepted about half of those recommended. There was no fraud here.
More important today, there was not even any involvement by the general investing public. Nevertheless, the senators act as if Goldman Sachs sends out serial killers to murder people every day.

I have no special regard for Goldman Sachs. It can take care of itself. I do, however, have the apparently strange belief that senators should speak honestly about what is happening and not knowingly distort the truth for political gain. I do not believe that the senators are all so dumb that they do not understand that they are misleading the public. In this regard, I want to give a special shout out to Carl Levin of Michigan as the winner of the prize for Demagogue of the Month. The man seems to know no limits when he sees a political advantage.