When politicians from both parties fail to step in and act like adults with shady industries like this, what else should we expect? Was it cowardice or was it a real belief in the system's ability to bring back the economy? It didn't come as a surprise to see Bush protect the bankers but it's hard to swallow Obama's continuation of the same policies including some of the same people. Rather than "change" is the typical Washington model of kicking the can down the road and hoping the next meltdown happens when the next person is in office.
So much for Wall Street feeling the pain if their stock prices drop. The high-priced scam artists have done it again.
But it turns out that executives have a way to get around those best-laid plans. Using complex investment transactions, they can limit the downside on their holdings, or even profit, as other shareholders are suffering.
More than a quarter of Goldman Sachs’s partners, a highly influential group of around 475 top executives, used these hedging strategies from July 2007 through November 2010, according to a New York Times analysis of regulatory filings. The arrangements were intended to protect their personal portfolios when the firm’s stock was highly volatile, especially at the height of the crisis.
In some cases, executives saved millions of dollars by using these tactics. One prominent Goldman investment banker avoided more than $7 million in losses over a four-month period.
