Libya placed bets with Goldman, lost $1.3 billion

[TacticalPeek]

Source: CNN


Libya placed bets with Goldman, lost $1.3 billion

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Goldman Sachs managed $1.3 billion worth of trades in currencies and other investments for the Libyan Investment Authority in 2008, according to a report published Tuesday.

After those investments lost nearly all of their value in the market turmoil of 2009, Goldman offered Libya the chance to become one of its biggest stakeholders, according to the Wall Street Journal.



Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/31/news/companies/goldman_libya/?section=money_latest

---

They are all of them a bunch of thieves and murderers.

[notesdev]

1. The plot thickens...

I wonder if this has anything to do with us being at war with engaged in "kinetic military action" with respect to Libya now?

[Demeter]

4. And Sickens

Hope gaddafi wins and sues for their heads.

[Fool Count]

17. Well, it is a sort of an established fact that US Military's main

purpose and task is to serve as a global enforcer for Goldman (and few others).
Would they start a war over $1.5 billion? In a New York minute, if they think
it would cost them little (<$500 mil) and some justification could be cooked up
for the public to swallow. Even if they underestimate the total costs, as they
usually do, hey, that's not their money anyway.

[dipsydoodle]

2. If you root around

you'll find that's nothing. They've been turned over big time in the past few years.

* Libya lost billions of dollars on sophisticated financial products sold to Muammer Gaddafi’s sovereign wealth fund by some of the world’s leading financial institutions. http://citywire.co.uk/money/thursday-papers-libya-fund-suffers-big-losses-money-and-other-news/a495033

The original article was in the FT and that's difficult to access. Was discussed on our tv news here in the UK last week.

[Blue_Tires]

3. So who cleaned up at the casino?

That money didn't disappear into the ether...

[dipsydoodle]

5. Goldman

.

[PuffedMica]

11. Goldman, or perhaps a portion went to fund clandestine operations

There are entities in the world that profit from never ending war, and the opposition needs money to keep operating. Wars require replacement hardware, and defense contractors are ready willing and able to accept money to 'defend' the homeland from those pesky foreigners blowing stuff up all over the world.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Goldman

They never lose. Even if it's unethical, immoral or illegal, Goldman is there to clean up and collect the profits.

They ARE the giant Vampire Squid, jamming their blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

[JDPriestly]

6. Is this related to the money losses? (Fox source. Sorry.)

U.S. Senate
Senator Grills Fed in Letter on Libyan Bank Bailout

Published April 01, 2011

| FoxNews.com

A U.S. senator says he wants answers to why the Federal Reserve provided more than $26 billion in credit to an Arab intermediary for the Central Bank of Libya.

Sen. Bernie Sanders , D-Vt., sent a letter to the Federal Reserve that also demands to know why the Libyan-owned bank and two of its branches in New York were exempted from sanctions that the U.S. slapped on other Libyan businesses to isolate Col. Muammar Qaddafi.

"It is incomprehensible to me that while credit-worthy small businesses in Vermont and throughout the country could not receive affordable loans, the Federal Reserve was providing tens of billions of dollars in credit to a bank that is substantially owned by the Central Bank of Libya," Sanders said in a written statement.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/01/senator-questions-federal-reserve-bails-bank-libya/#ixzz1Ny4Fs04L

[dipsydoodle]

9. Don't think so

Libya's Sovereign Wealth Fund doesn't exist as such in the form of cash - mainly investments and stock holdings like a large slab of Fiat for example. It could be that the US$26 billion you mentioned was there as a line secured against the Wealth Fund to provide drawing rights to the rebels aka tossers.

[Corruption Winz]

7. Investments lose value...

Interesting.. So, magically, the money is no longer in place. Wall street is full of magicians.

[Newest Reality]

8. Abracadabra! - NT

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. It's getting to the point where is somebody said "Hey look. There's a piece of dogshit on the road!"

I'd say, "How is Goldman involved?"

These fuckers seem to have their fingers in everything that goes south and evil.

What in the fuck?

[UpInArms]

12. a good read is the Matt Taibbai report in Rolling Stone for more info

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/wall-streets-bailout-hustle-20100217

[OwnedByFerrets]

13. You can bet your bottom dollar that GOLDMAN didnt lose one penny

Its always funny when they say money is LOST. It just goes from one big pocket to another.

[Nihil]

15. Yep ... remember how the traders always pipe up to defend their gambling habit?

"Every bet in one direction has to have a counter-bet in the other direction."

If the suckers (=Libyans in this example) have been encouraged to bet against
the House, Goldman will be placing the counter-bet and cleaning up with the
winnings (on top of the commission fees, etc., of course).

But any attempt to regulate or - dare I say it? - tax their unbridled profits
is treated with horror at the "socialism" of it all ...

:grr:

[hughee99]

16. If Goldman was just managing their accounts, why would they lose money?

Sure, Goldman themselves made a lot of bad investments, but if Libya was just doing their trading through Goldman, then Libya lost their own money and Goldman just handled the transaction (and made fees for doing it). It's like buying a bad lottery ticket, Libya was the customer and Goldman was the store clerk.

[Prometheus Bound]

18. They must have been furious because Goldman gave bad advice.

But, yes, it's normally the client's decision finally how to invest it.

Maybe they felt Goldman misled them.

But losing 98% of its value. That got to be really hard to do.