Much has been made of the extraordinary profits posted by Goldman Sachs with its best quarter since the end of 2007 when the recession was just beginning. As Phillip Silitschanu, a senior analyst with Aite Group told reporters: "Goldman really is in a class by themselves."
But the unsettling part about these numbers is that Goldman is back to its old tactics of investing in high-risk trading and investing in everything from mortgages to commodities and underwriting of stock and debt offers. And that raises an obvious question: how long can they keep it up? Part of the success was helped by the fact that Goldman Sachs had converted to a commercial bank amid the financial meltdown last year to gain access to Federal Reserve resources. No wonder the bank reimbursed the $10 billion in preferred shares taken by the US government and why it paid a dividend of $425 million.
There is another reason for its figures: the demise of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns means that investors now have fewer places to park their money. Goldman Sachs is happy to help them out.
Despite the stellar result, some analysts were underwhelmed. As reported here, Standard & Poor's says it can't last. S&P analyst Scott Sprinzen said: "Although GS may well continue outperforming its close peers, we don't consider its first-half results to be sustainable. Moreover, we continue to have concerns about the confidence sensitivity of securities firms with sizable trading operations and high reliance on wholesale funding, despite this strong recent showing. Although GS may well continue outperforming its close peers, we don't consider its first-half results to be sustainable."
Not that any of that bothers Goldman Sachs. The Financial Times reports that pay levels there are set to eclipse the multi-million dollar levels raked in during the boom.
While the rest of the world is going through its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the people at Goldman Sachs are on another planet.
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