Levin also asked Sparks about a $1 billion product called Timberwolf that Goldman sold to investors while betting against it. Levin cited an e-mail sent to Sparks from another Goldman executive using an expletive to describe Timberwolf as "one s----y deal."
"Your top priority is to sell that s----y deal," Levin said. "Come on, Mr. Sparks, should Goldman Sachs be trying to sell a s----y deal?"
"I didn't use that term," the Goldman executive responded.
SHOOT: Here's what has to happen. Close the bank down. They're arrogant, they're dishonest, and it's not a case of 'too big to fail', but too big to be allowed to run Wall Street.
At the hearing, senators from both parties verbally pounded the Goldman executives, accusing them of financial gambling that helped nearly derail the entire U.S. economy.
At least in Las Vegas, said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., "people know the odds are against them. They play anyway. On Wall Street, they manipulate the odds while you're playing the game."
The SEC says Tourre marketed securities without telling buyers they had been chosen with help from a Goldman hedge fund client that was betting the investments would fail. The commission alleged that Tourre told investors the hedge fund, Paulson & Co., actually bought into the investments.
Tourre said he didn't recall telling investors that.
"We did not cause the financial crisis. ... I do not think that we did anything wrong," said Michael Swenson, who runs Goldman's structured products group trading.
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clipped from news.yahoo.com
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