As news of Morgan Stanley being put under the microscope for similar reasons, Naked Capitalism looks at some criticism of the scrutiny Goldman Sachs has received and why they received this scrutiny in the first place:

From Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman and her crew takes a look the latest Matt Taibbi piece in Rolling Stone Magazine:

“Looting Main Street”–Matt Taibbi on How the Nation’s Biggest Banks Are Ripping Off American Cities with Predatory Deals

In a new article in Rolling Stone magazine, journalist Matt Taibbi takes an in-depth look at the experience of one small Alabama town and its disastrous dealings with Wall Street. Taibbi writes, “The destruction of Jefferson County reveals the basic battle plan of these modern barbarians, the way that banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have systematically set out to pillage towns and cities from Pittsburgh to Athens.”

The Democracy Now! video is below the fold while the Rolling Stone piece is at the other end of this link and deals with how it all is hurting your school and your local government. To make matters worse for many of these communities they also have to deal with how their local government has been corrupted by bribes from the bankers.

From StevenD at Booman Tribune we get this interesting observation:

What part of my citation from this story is dripping with irony? Take your time, but it should be easy to spot without too much hard work.

The president will announce a series of measures to cut down on excessive risk-taking as part of a revamp of the country's financial regulatory system, a senior Obama official said on Wednesday.

The move could also help the White House tap into public rage over Wall Street excess after Obama's Democratic Party was rebuffed by voters in Massachusetts, who elected Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. senate.

"The proposal will include size and complexity limits specifically on proprietary trading and the White House will work closely with the House and Senate to work this into legislation," the official said.

Did you see it? I'm sure you did, but being the incurable know-it-all that I am, let me point it out for you anyway:

"[T]he White House will work closely with the House and Senate to work this into legislation."

I hope this doesn't mean that they will go about this the same way they "worked closely with the House and Senate" to get a workable health care reform bill passed. Because if that's the case all I can see is another looming failure where certain Senators and Blue Dog Democrats hijack the process and turn the financial reforms the administration proposes into the same bowl of thin gruel that health care reform ended up as, thanks to people like Bart Stupak, Joe Lieberman, Olympia Snowe and Ben Nelson.

In what is completely and totally unrelated news that will never, NEVER EVER, have any impact on the information StevenD is talking about:

Last week ago, Institutional Risk Analytics interviewed Josh Rosner of Graham Fisher & Co and David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors, and the discussion is one of the most direct and revealing of the true political nature of the financial collapse I have yet seen.