These things should have never existed. It is nearly impossible for fair and full disclosure to exist with securities of this sort, as nobody in their right mind is going to buy an instrument which comes into existence only because the person on the other side of the transaction believes the reference securities are going to zero!

A review of Goldman’s dubious activities.

The Securities & Exchange Commission charged Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and one of its vice presidents for defrauding investors by misstating and omitting key facts about a financial product tied to subprime mortgages.

The SEC said Goldman Sachs structured and marketed a synthetic collateralized-debt obligation, or CDO, that hinged on the performance of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities.

The CDO was structured and marketed by Goldman in early 2007 when the U.S. housing market and related securities were beginning to show signs of distress, the SEC complaint said.

A plea to support a whistleblower on the financial fraud

A Danny Schecter blog

Another perspective on the ‘banks own this place’

A summary from leading economists about the financial crisis

an investigative report re AIG and the FP dept. of it

An analysis of the current fiscal crisis and the steps necessary to address it

How Do You Spell Sweet Deal? For Banks, It’s TLGP