Bank Bashing Just Beginning?

 

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Though many people -- even some non-bankers -- are tired of what they see as a solid 18 months of attacks on banks by Congress, regulators and the public, there is plenty of evidence to suggest we are just getting started.

While the New York Times went over well-trodden ground earlier this month with an investigation into Goldman Sachs'(GS Quote) role in the meltdown of AIG(AIG Quote), the newspaper appears to have done more damage with a somewhat newer line of inquiry: the role of Goldman in the current Greek debt crisis.

It seems Goldman helped Greece mask its debt from European regulators through certain sophisticated derivatives transactions, theTimes reported on Saturday. The article noted that JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote) performed similar wizardry of the books of the Italian government. The Financial Times followed up Monday, reporting that The New York Times article was prompting an investigation by European Union authorities into the Greek transaction. An additional followup, byThe New York Times' Floyd Norris, compared the deals to one involvingEnron that came to light several years ago.

As the sovereign debt crisis threatens to spread from Greece to other European countries, so, surely, will the web of culpability expand to ensnare other investment banks, not to mention provide fresh evidence of questionable transactions by those already implicated, which include not just Goldman and JPMorgan, but France's BNP Paribas, Germany'sDeutsche Bank(DB Quote), and two Greek banks, EFG Eurobank andNational Bank of Greece.

Indeed, the revelations about banks helping clients rack up unsustainable debt loads are likely to multiply far beyond real estate and European sovereign debt. The particular genius of bankers during the securitization boom was their ability to find more and more uses for securitization.

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www.thestreet.com/story/10681962/2/bank-bashing-just-beginning.html




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