Goldman Sachs upset their deal with Greece went public

And for good reason.

They're trying to spin the episode as another routine budget event but as we all know now, the modern Wall Street deals are nothing like the deals of yesteryear.

Wall Street loves trying to associate old time finance with the complicate and risky garbage that they sold the world in recent years.

At this point, who believes anything they have to say?

The wingnut (yes, they have wingnuts there , too) Greek government who did this deal in hopes of pushing the problem out to another government deserves plenty of blame as well, but Goldman does not deserve a free pass.

And to play the "everyone else was doing it" card is amazing.

Goldman was by no means the only bank involved with these types of instruments. These transactions were consistent with standards of behaviour and measurements used by the European community.... It is clear with hindsight that the standards of transparency could have been and probably should have been higher."

Concerns over rising Greek debt exploded into a full-blown crisis this month, as financial markets pulled down the value of the euro on fears that the Greek government could default.

Mr. Corrigan, a former head of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, testified at Westminster yesterday on how to prevent a future crisis. He said it was a "wrenching human experience" to disagree with the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Paul Volcker, now an aide to President Barack Obama, who has proposed new rules to curb proprietary trading and hedge fund activities by major banks.