Re: NJ's Corzine - true or false?

[Guest guest]

Saw this on news:

Goldman 4Q profit beats expectations By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business

Writer

12 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Tuesday said it was able to

chalk up another record-breaking year, though concerns about the

quality of its earnings in the fourth quarter sent the stock sharply

lower.

Also, despite results for the quarter that easily beat Wall Street

expectations, Chief Financial Officer Viniar said he was " still

cautious about the near-term outlook. "

Shares fell $3.89 to $204.74 in early trading.

Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Mayo, in a note to clients, said the

fourth-quarter results were not as strong as the third quarter but

should still be recognized as better than most.

After paying preferred dividends, fourth quarter earnings rose to

$3.17 billion, or $7.01 per share, from $3.10 billion, or $6.59 per

share in the year-ago period. Fees from underwriting and stock

trading drove revenue for the three months ended Nov. 30 to $10.74

billion from $9.41 billion.

Results surpassed Wall Street projections for a profit of $6.61 per

share on revenue of $10.16 billion, according to analysts polled by

Thomson Financial.

Lloyd Blankfein, the investment bank's chairman and chief executive,

has been hailed this year for avoiding the mortgage losses that

slammed rivals. During the fourth quarter, Goldman said it boosted

assets under management from mortgages and earned about $500 million

in trading of non-investment grade loans.

The quarter helped secure Goldman its fourth consecutive year of

record earnings. In 2007, the investment house posted profit of $11.6

billion — up 22 percent from the previous year.

Fixed-income, currency and commodities trading rose 6 percent to $3.3

billion. Investment banking surged 47 percent in the fourth quarter

to $1.97 billion.

Viniar said the investment banking backlog decreased during the

quarter, but remains higher than at the end of 2006. He said there

is " a lot of dialogue " among CEOs looking to complete deals, but

that " whether those deals actually come to fruition will somewhat

depend on the world's capital markets and economies. "

Revenue from underwriting stock, bond and debt offerings was flat on

the year at $733 million. Debt underwriting results fell 15 percent

on a drop in leveraged finance and mortgage offerings, due to what

Goldman termed " challenging market conditions. "

Trading and principal investments revenue rose 4 percent to $6.93

billion from a year earlier, but was off 16 percent from the third

quarter.

Goldman's results follow Lehman Brothers Holdings Corp., which last

week said fiscal fourth-quarter profit declined 12 percent but

surpassed expectations. Stanley posts results on Wednesday,

followed by Bear Stearns Cos. on Thursday.

>

> Someone sent this to me. I don't know if it's true or not.

>

> " Corzine was a higher-up at the Goldman Sachs, the

> biggest stock brokerage firm on Wall Street. I believe

> Goldman Sachs is the exclusive agent for Merck and

> other major Pharma corporations for the sale of their

> stocks on the New York and NASDAQ exchanges. The

> Federal Securities and Exchange Commission requires a

> coporation to use the services of a licensed stock

> broker for its initial offerings and all other

> transactions involving the purchase and sale of its

> stock and the distribution of its dividends. Goldman

> Sachs apparently is the go-to stock broker of choice

> for Pharma firms. So I wonder if a case for

> conflict-of-interest may be made for Governor Corzine

> requiring children to undergo compulsory vaccinations

> with vaccines manufactured by Merck and other Pharma

> corporations which do business with his Goldman Sachs

> firm. More particularly, it should be investigated if

> Governor Corzine himself, as a Goldman Sachs stock

> broker, received commissions, bounuses and other

> remunerations from Merck and other Pharma corporations

> which continue to profit from state mandated

> vaccination programs he allows to operate as a favor

> to his Pharma clients. "

>

> , FA ~

>

> http://www.hotboards.com/plus/plus.mirage?who=autism

>