Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) Greece Credit Default Swaps

Goldman Sachs Greece Credit Default Swaps

The pathetic chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, blathered on recently on how the Securities and Exchange Commission will be checking into Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and their practices concerning using legal credit default swaps as a best against Greece defaulting on their debt.

Credit default swaps are a type of insurance used against bond defaults. They are tools to use as hedges in other words.

But for Bernanke, who should be the one being interrogated for his role in the collapse of the U.S. economy through easy and cheap credit, along with his response of printing an endless amount of money which is continuing to destroy the value of the U.S. dollar.

Anyway, to now to play god again from his perch at the helm of the Federal Reserve, evidently feeling aggressive from his installment for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Bernanke is making it look like Goldman Sachs is doing something wrong by betting against Greece. This is something done all the time by individual and institutional investors, in a number of catergories, currencies and countries.

To make this look unusual shows the disingenuousness of Bernanke and the U.S. government which continues to attempt to distract the American public by stunts and assertions like this which takes the focus off of their outrageous behavior with bailouts using taxpayers' money.

Goldman Sachs Greece Credit Default Swaps

UBS Selling Commodities Businesses to Barclays

UBS made an expected statement on Friday that they are selling some of their commodities businesses, something the have mentioned as a goal in the past.

Barclays Capital is acquiring the power and gas businesses in the U.S., oil, and their base metals divisions. All together approximately 100 people are employed in the combined companies or units. Details of the terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

With losses in the billions, UBS is looking for alternative ways to raise capital in these difficult circumstances. They've already written down about $49 billion and received intervention from the government.

Other deals they've made are the sales of the stake they had in the Bank of China, and separately their global agriculture business and Canadian energy operations to J.P. Morgan Chase.

Last year they also got out of some of the power and gas markets they served in Europe, while keeping those in North America, northwest Europe and Britain.

The company is keeping its exchange-traded commodities, precious metals and index commodities, as well as continuing to trade in refined oil products and crude oil.

Assuming specific conditions of the deal are met, it should close sometime at the end of the second quarter.

The move is understandable, but when commodities begin to return in the future, they'll be sorry at the extraordinary profits they forfeited.