Lloyd Blankfein and his accusers have at least one thing in common. Both talk convincingly, but fail to back this up with the concrete steps needed to bolster the financial system. In his congressional grilling yesterday, Mr Blankfein, Goldman's chief executive, admitted that “complexity and the fact that some instruments couldn't be easily bought or sold compounded the effects of the crisis”. He also called for more transparency, and supported clearing houses for “eligible derivatives”. These positions just about add up to accepting that the transaction involving a synthetic collateralised debt obligation that prompted a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit should probably not be allowed in the future.
勞爾德•貝蘭克梵(Lloyd Blankfein)和起訴他的那些人至少有一個共同點。那就是他們說起話來都言之鑿鑿，但未能輔之以鞏固金融體系的具體舉措。昨日在接受國會質詢時，這位高盛執行長承認，「複雜性，以及某些工具無法輕易買賣的事實，加重了危機的影響」。他還呼籲提高交易透明度，並支持爲「合乎條件的衍生產品」設置清算所。這些立場幾乎等同於接受這樣一種觀點：即今後或許應該禁止任何涉及合成債務抵押債券(synthetic CDO)的交易，該產品正是美國證交會(SEC)此次訴訟的誘因。