Two Sets of Rules: One For Goldman Sachs and One For The Rest of Us
Democracy Now! HuffPost Business
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Today's announcement that Goldman Sachs received a subpoena from the office of the Manhattan district attorney has left many wondering whether any top executives will actually face criminal prosecution for the company's role in causing the financial meltdown of 2008.

Democracy Now! interviews financial experts Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner about the root causes of the financial meltdown, the Goldman Sachs investigation, and about their new book, Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon.

"I think there is a genuine sense out there that there are two sets of rules: one for big and powerful institutions that are deemed to be too powerful to fail, and the rest of us, Main Street," says Morgenson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning business reporter who has written extensively on how the U.S. government has failed to prosecute any of the top figures who played a role in the economic crash.

Democracy Now on US Financial Meltdown

Goldman Subpoenaed By Manhattan DA In Relation To Credit Crisis
Huffpost Business
By Christina Rexrode and Rachel Beck
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NEW YORK (AP) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was subpoenaed by the Manhattan District Attorney's office over the investment bank's activities leading up to the financial crisis, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Shares of Goldman fell nearly 2 percent Thursday morning after Bloomberg News reported that the bank had been subpoenaed. A subpoena is a request for information and doesn't mean that a company has done anything wrong.

A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said the office had no update regarding Goldman. Goldman spokesman David Wells said the company doesn't comment on specific regulatory or legal issues, but cooperates fully when it receives a subpoena.

The subpoena follows the April release of a Senate report that showed Goldman had steered investors toward mortgage securities it knew would likely fail.

The report, which was done by a Senate panel investigating the financial crisis, found that Goldman marketed four sets of complex mortgage securities to banks and other investors. The report said the firm failed to tell the banks and investors that the securities were very risky, secretly bet against the investors' positions and deceived the investors about its own positions to shift risk from its balance sheet to investors'.

Sen. Carl Levin., D-Mich., who heads the panel, said at the time the report was released that he planned to convey findings to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible further investigation.

Sen. Levin's spokesman, Bryan Thomas, said the senator had no comment.