Cramer Changes Tune On Goldman, Says Charge Is Not "Frivolous" And Firm Will Have To Settle Or Pay $2-3 Billion Fine
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
What a difference a day makes. First Cramer was firmly planted in the Steve Liesman camp, who in turn for the past week has been moonlighting as the semi-official Goldman PR manager, in "leaking" every piece of useless "absolving" information (a job only secondary in worthlessness to that of worst financial stock analyst ever Dick Bove who has been buying Goldman all the day down from $185), however now after actually doing some thinking, the troubled theStreet.com owner who himself is no stranger to SEC investigations, has diametrically changed his tune. In this morning’s edition of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, Cramer said: "What makes this worse than most situations is that it’s entirely possible this young guy, who’s now holding the whole firm hostage, Fabrice Tourre – it’s entirely possible that he sold it fraudulently. If he did, then Goldman has no defense. So, what I would emphasize at this particular moment is that this guy is way too powerful. The hearings are going to go badly. Goldman knew they were going to have a Wells Notice, knew they were going to get prosecuted. They didn’t reveal it. It was totally material. Again they did that wrong.” But we thought that according to "GAMECHANGING" information which you yourself Jim broke, Goldman was ok: after all they lost "money on the deal", a conclusion so moronic it immediately led to derisive ridicule from fringe blog Zero Hedge. That said, we are pleased to bury the hatchet – after all even former Goldmanite and seasned CNBSer Jim now agrees that the vampire squid is in deep shit.
As Jeff Poor of Business and Media reports:
Cramer argued that Goldman would have better served by approaching the government hat in hand rather than taking an aggressive tack against the charges. As things are, however, he predicted serious consequences for the firm and its management.
“The main thing you have to understand is that Goldman has basically said, ‘Government, you’re just dead wrong,’ instead of saying, government, ‘We’re sorry, what do you need to do?’” Cramer explained. “In order to end this, if it’s a settlement, they will have to pay the largest fine in history and it’s questionable whether senior management’s going to be able to stay. A lot of this is Goldman’s doing.”
“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski was skeptical of Cramer’s analysis, telling him to “separate the fact that you worked there,” and asked why criminal charges aren’t being pressed against employees at Goldman Sachs.
“Look, because they haven’t referred it,” Cramer explained. “Remember, who commissioners said – no, no, it’s not criminal. As a lawyer, it’s not criminal.”
But the “Mad Money” host said it isn’t frivolous either. The government “has a real case,” he said, that “Goldman has to settle. This is a ridiculous thing Goldman is doing.” The bottom line, according to Cramer is a settlement for “$2 Billion, $3 billion, and management may not stay.”
Don’t worry Jim – if there is any trace of justice left, not only will Goldman be slapped with the $3 billion fine (thank you FDIC for your generous TLGP funding) which again will be paid out by taxpayers, but quite a few DAs are already smelling squid ink. Of that, we can assure you.
