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A comment on Goldman-Sachs Posts $1.8 Billion 1Q Profit, Looks to Sell Stock, Repay TARP.

Re:Goldman-Sachs Posts $1.8 Billion 1Q Profit, Looks to Sell... by ajju on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @12:05AM (#560978)
Accounting regulations were changed last week [1] so that banks do not have to "mark to market" in "inactive markets" anymore. Since Goldman Sachs is now a bank holding company, they don't have to do this either. What is now a ~2B profit would probably have been a far greater loss by the old rules.

[1] http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN09...

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Re:Goldman-Sachs Posts $1.8 Billion 1Q Profit, Looks to Sell... by j2d2 on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @12:27AM (#561007)
Interestingly, they're sitting on over $100B cash and cash equiv.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=GS&annual

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Re:Goldman-Sachs Posts $1.8 Billion 1Q Profit, Looks to Sell... by ajju on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @12:31AM (#561011)
With accounts payable of $257B, so the cash doesn't really mean that much and a net ~64B assets-liabilities and all those numbers are from Nov '08
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Re:Goldman-Sachs Posts $1.8 Billion 1Q Profit, Looks to Sell... by j2d2 on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @02:15AM (#561093)
Fair points.
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Re:Goldman-Sachs Posts $1.8 Billion 1Q Profit, Looks to Sell... by op12 on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @09:52AM (#561453)
We should be careful and not equate what they have the option of doing to what they are actually doing. They in particular have been sticklers in marking to market no matter what, regardless of if they are a bank holding company or not (In the conference call this is reiterated many times).

It would not have been a far greater loss under the old rules, that much is clear from reading the balance sheet and disclosure of the relatively small size of legacy assets (the assets that would be impacted by different marking methods). Income was driven in pure trade faciliation, good old fashioned buy low and sell high in the capacity of a financial intermediary.

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Re:Goldman-Sachs Posts $1.8 Billion 1Q Profit, Looks to Sell... by websevenpointoh on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @02:15AM (#561092)
The way these things turn out is both sad and terrifying.
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