/UCWE/ - Goldman Sachs has been the posterchild for success in the financial industry, there is no question about that but according to some they have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

In short we all know that the collapse of the home mortgage market was a major contributor to the financial meltdown not only in the United States but globally, it just became a domino effect. In the midst of this the true blue capitalist, that being Goldman Sachs and their fearless leader Lloyd Blankfein, did what any Wall Street firm does and that is capitalize on the current situation.

So they actually made money in the end from the mortgage meltdown and for that they have been penalized by being charged with fraud from the Securities and Exchange Commission. In reality its not a matter of fraud but probably more of a matter of ethics, was it ethical for them to play both sides of the fence with the Abacus 2007-AC1 transaction?

Well that judgement I will leave up to the masses but I will say that its not fraudulent as far as I can see.

Goldman Sachs is being judged on the cover of every major media publication, on every television network and the short memory spans is what amazes me, as Goldman Sachs with all the profits they have made over the years have created jobs, generated tax revenue for the country and they have made lots of money for their clients.

But they are an easy target and that is the point, they are easy to attack because of their success, and with success comes controversy and as it was nicely put in the movie "American Gangster" , "you can either be successful and have enemies or be unsuccessful and have all friends," and at this point its their time to be in the hotseat.

Now what this does is add a question mark as to their reputation, it allows foreign governments who stepped up to assist the United States in this massive bailout to begin to put a face on the problem and give them reason not to do business with the firm.

Do I think it was a smart move? not at all I think it was the S.E.C. trying to mask their dropping the ball on everything from Allen Stanford to Bernie Maddoff, its a distraction but one that Goldman Sachs has to deal with.

Let me remind everyone that duing the great market crash of 1929 when all stocks were falling out like flies, that more wealth was made by the bankers that waited and CAPITALIZED on the fallout. They could've saved the crash from happening and actually caused a paused for a day when they all got together to try and stablize the markets, but they all pulled out as quickly as they went in. This made the rich even richer while the small investor, margined five times over went bankrupt.

Is this much different? They didn't actually issue the loans to mortgage holders that couldn't afford the loans, they capitalized on the fallout.

Well we will see what comes out of this as it will be very interesting.

- Louis Velazquez