Claims from Goldman Sachs executives that the firm lost money on mortgage-related investments look a whole lot less true today after the release of e-mails that say exactly the opposite. Released by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations ahead of a hearing on Tuesday, the e-mails between Goldman executives say it made “some serious money” by betting against the housing market. One message from CEO Lloyd Blankfein said, “Of course we didn’t dodge the mortgage mess. We lost money, then made more than we lost because of shorts.”
Other e-mails indicate that Goldman was racking up as much as $51 million a day in profits by shorting the housing market. Carl Levin, the head of the subcommittee, hasn’t taken kindly to these revelations. In a statement today he said:
The moral of this story: stop using e-mail and invest in some carrier pigeons.
Goldman Sachs Messages Show It Thrived as Economy Fell [NYT]
