Frontrunning: April 20

• An economy of liars (WSJ)
• Goldman Sachs alum receive threatening phone calls from their Alma Mater (Huffington Post)
• Sack Goldmans! UK Ministers urged to bar bank from government contracts (Independent)
• Another case of quant espionage: ex-Soc Gen trader accused of stealing code (Bloomberg)
• Goldman taps ex-White House counsel for help (Reuters)
• Goldman's London unit face formal UK probe (Bloomberg)
• Roger Altman: Obama's disastrous debt is Obama's biggest test (FT)
• Fannie and Freddie amnesia (WSJ)
• New ash cloud prompts fresh flight fears (FT)
• The people who bring you perfectly "efficient" and totallycomputerized markets: QuantHouse breaks the 5.55 million market data messages decoded per second (AutomatedTrader)
• Caveat emptor (Alhambra)
• Goldman vs. SEC: An FT Explainer (FT)
• Dodd's jobs-killer (NYPost)

Comments

[anynonmous]

Well worth watching from yesterday on Bloomberg TV (39 minutes)

James Grant, Michael Harkins, and Paul Isaac, talk with Bloomberg's Pimm Fox

http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=video&T=Grant%2C%20Harkins%2C%20I...

[HarryWanger]

Shaping up to be a monster day. Great earnings pretty much all around this morning and retail looks strong on econ report. Open above 1200 - new highs?

[taraxias]

Yup, mooonster day. Up 9 points after gapping up 25 and GS in the red after that mooonster earning report. Got it.

Next troll please.

[solgundy]

Gee Whiz....and to think that Martin Armstrong still sits in jail......

[pan-the-ist]

The WSJ article (economy of liars) seems to make sense to one who isn't a libertopian.  I don't quite grasp how the government would catch the 'liars/thiefs' and ensure full disclosure.  The other side of full disclosure is that it would put you and I on (more equal) footing as the investment banks in terms of information asymmetry.

[Captain Obviousness]

Maybe I'm a "libertopian" but that WSJ article is the best, most succinct, description of what is wrong with the U.S. right now that I've ever seen. Ironic that it comes from an ex-Shitigroup and ex-Fed guy.

How to catch the liars/thieves?  Just f-ing prosecute them!  Just f-ing let the companies fail!  We already know who so many of the criminals are, but we aren't doing anything about it.  This SEC bs with Goldman is a slap on the wrist.  The PEOPLE behind these scams need to be prosecuted.  Dishing out fines to corporations is pointless.  People are behind these scams, people lucratively profited from these scams and put the money into their bank accounts, and it is people not corporations that should be held accountable.

We don't need any new laws.  Fraud is fraud, just enforce the damn law.  For the love of God, fraud is one of the earliest crimes in the common law system, it's like 800 years old, how in the hell is it being ignored now???

[Mr Lennon Hendrix]

This day in history:

Jacque de Molay, the final Grand Master of the Knights Templars, was ordained in 1292.