Goldman Sachs 666

Another Goldman-related item in today's FT is this blog post by Tracy Alloway, "The Devil and www.goldmansachs666.com", which mentions the existence of an anti-Goldman Sachs website, GoldmanSachs666.com, run by a fellow named Mike Morgan. Here's Mr. Morgan's disclosure note from his site:

Disclosure: Yes, I am short Goldman Sachs stock. I believe this company is evil and should not exist. We need to begin to break up companies that have as much control over world finances as Goldman Sachs.

Ms. Alloway takes something of a cheeky tone in her post on GoldmanSachs666.com, but what Mike Morgan is calling for above isn't too far off from what Alloway's FT colleague John Gapper called for in his column on Goldman today¹:

More fundamentally, we now know unambiguously that Goldman is a “systemically important financial firm”. In other words, Goldman is too big to fail and would be bailed out by the US government if its balance sheet failed. That privilege should come with weighty conditions.

Note that Goldman’s status is a choice, not a tag it has unwillingly been given. It could avoid this by shrinking itself into an institution like a private equity group or a merchant bank, which can take all the risks it desires because its partners lose everything if it fails.

¹The same column we mentioned in the previous post, "John Gapper Brings the Crazy".