Quote from patchie:
So let me guess. The US Government did their due diligence, found that Government Sachs did not have a vested interest , and based on their findings determined that this public lending company was not too big to fail.
There is an old saying :
follow the money. If GS has full boat of CDS like discussed here :
Jim Bianco has a fascinating post at The Big Picture, asking what is Goldman Sachs?
His answer: one big credit portfolio.
And he has some convincing charts, including this one, showing the commercial bankâs (née investment) stock price against the option-adjusted spread of an investment grade CDS index. Click to enlarge:
Of course, correlation is not causation (we also note that since 2007 Goldman shares have been moving pretty much in tandem with the S&P 500) but Bianco does have some interesting supporting evidence, mined from the OCCâs Q1 2009 report on bank trading and derivatives activities. Now that Goldmanâs changed into a commercial bank itâs required to report this kind of data, which in itself is a veritable treasure trove for anyone trying to understand it.
For instance, in the report we learn that Goldmanâs total credit exposure to capital was something like 1,000 per cent in Q1. That credit exposure, according to the report, is comprised mostly of CDS written on investment grade credit. In contrast, the next-biggest credit exposure was 475 per cent.
Meanwhile, Goldmanâs quarterly trading revenue accounted for 69 per cent of Q1 gross revenue â which must mean, according to Bianco, that the bankâs revenues primarily come from credit trading. Hence his conclusion:
Since February 7, 2008 both Goldmanâs stock and the bank index has been highly correlated to credit. Neither was highly correlated before this date. Since September 5, 2008 Goldmanâs relationship to credit held, but the bank indexâ relationship has begun to diverge. So, in answering the question, âdo stock traders understand that Goldman is essentially a large credit protfolioâ, [sic] these charts suggest the answer is âyes.â
Indeed, there is a hint of the importance of credit in yesterdayâs record Q2 results:
Fixed Income, Currency and Commodoties (FICC) generated record quarterly net revenues of $6.80 billion, reflecting strength across most businesses, including record results in credit products.
But we hesitate to generalise GS as purely a credit calamari; surely the bankâs secret sauce is not that simple?
Thoughts?
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/07/15/62196/is-goldman-sachs-a-giant-credit-portfolio/