Panel’s Blunt Questions Put Goldman on Defensive

By LOUISE STORY
NYT

WASHINGTON — Even before the first question was leveled inside the Senate chamber, Tuesday was going to be uncomfortable for Goldman Sachs.

But then the questions kept coming — and coming and coming.

Through the day and into the evening, Goldman Sachs officials met with confrontation and blunt questioning as senators from both parties challenged them over their aggressive marketing of mortgage investments at a time when the housing market was already starting to falter.

In an atmosphere charged by public animosity toward Wall Street, the senators compared the bankers to bookies and asked why Goldman had sold investments that its own sales team had disparaged with a vulgarity.

(More here.)