J'Accuse

Ben Stein accuses Goldman Sachs, and its former CEO Henry Paulson, of peddling mortgage securities while betting on, and abetting, their collapse
By News Dude,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 3, 2007 7:53 AM CST
J'Accuse
Family Research Council Hosts Voter Values Summit   (Getty Images)

In an extraordinary New York Times column Republican/libertarian economist, writer, actor, and lawyer Ben Stein accuses Goldman Sachs of being a willing participant in, and even plotting, the collapse of value in the collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) market. In the last several years Goldman sold $100 billion of the instruments to investors for substantial fees while at the same time shorting CMOs for profit.

Stein points to a dubious paper written by a Goldman economist—using a "combination of theory, data, guess-work, extrapolation, and what he recalls as history"—that forecasts  dire continuing fallout from the CMO collapse. Stein notes that Goldman was among the top 10 sellers of CMOs while shorting them on a "titanic" scale when current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was CEO. He wants an investigation into both Goldman's conduct and Paulson's fitness to serve. (More Ben Stein stories.)

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