Gold and tungsten are not mined together (laws of nature) and the gold that is mined is carefully tracked. If more gold were being claimed than has been mined and delivered, then it would be a story. Until something like that is revealed, then I give this claim as much credulity as everything else on those conspiracy web sites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqFeYs73-cM

In 2006 and 2007, the bank reportedly peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in US housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

See, Goldman was selling these bonds as—most of the bonds, 80 percent or so, as triple-A securities, that being the highest grade that you could get. These were gold-plated investments. Yet it was—yet it was betting the other way.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/4/sachs

[A] five-month McClatchy investigation has found that Goldman’s failure to disclose that it made secret, exotic bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws.

“The Securities and Exchange Commission should be very interested in any financial company that secretly decides a financial product is a loser and then goes out and actively markets that product or very similar products to unsuspecting customers without disclosing its true opinion,” said Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor who’s proposed a massive overhaul of the nation’s banks. “This is fraud and should be prosecuted.”

The article mentions that several pension funds have now brought class actions against Goldman, alleging widespread fraud.

Despite updating its numerous disclosures to investors in 2007, Goldman never revealed its secret wagers.

Asked whether Goldman’s bond sellers knew about the contrary bets, spokesman DuVally said the company’s mortgage business “has extensive barriers designed to keep information within its proper confines.”

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/77791.html

1. 10 Billion in TARP
2. 11 Billion from the Fed
3. 30 Billion from the FDIC
4. 13 Billion from AIG

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/goldman-sachs-black-magic_b_324095.html

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/damage_control_wMcWJrGnm5enlZYGHnwULI

The sector officially labeled “securities, commodity contracts and investments” has grown especially fast, from only 0.3 percent of G.D.P. in the late 1970s to 1.7 percent of G.D.P. in 2007.

Such growth would be fine if financialization really delivered on its promises — if financial firms made money by directing capital to its most productive uses, by developing innovative ways to spread and reduce risk. But can anyone, at this point, make those claims with a straight face? Financial firms, we now know, directed vast quantities of capital into the construction of unsellable houses and empty shopping malls. They increased risk rather than reducing it, and concentrated risk rather than spreading it. In effect, the industry was selling dangerous patent medicine to gullible consumers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/17/paul-krugman-slams-goldma_n_237102.html

Startling, too, is how much of its revenue Goldman is expected to share with its employees. Analysts estimate that the bank will set aside enough money to pay a total of $18 billion in compensation and benefits this year to its 28,000 employees, or more than $600,000 an employee. Top producers stand to earn millions.

Glenn Greenwald takes over where Matt Tabbi left off. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/07/13/goldman/index.html This recent news from Goldman Sachs is disgusting. This is obviously corrupt. Dozens of fat cats should be sitting in prison, not sending out their armies of lobbyists in order to take more of what isn’t theirs. Where are some real answers? When will Congress get it?

Thus, even aside from the bailout money it directly received and the billions in bailout money which it indirectly received (through AIG), Goldman has had access to massive amounts of Fed lending in order to fuel its bulging profits. That unimaginably enormous (though entirely secret) lending is, in part, what is behind the Ron Paul-sponsored bill to audit the Fed — a bill that is now co-sponsored by a majority of House members from across the political spectrum (progressive, conservative and everything in between), yet which continues to be blocked by Congressional leaders from receiving a floor vote.

Greenwald’s chronology and Tabbi and Bill Moyers are so incredibly reassuring, but not because people are being investigated. Not yet. But at least a few journalists are turning their attention to Goldman’s and Wall Street’s revolving door with the federal government. Maybe Ron Paul’s bill will keep making headway. But that assumes that half of the members of Congress aren’t corrupt. I’m not talking about intentionally corrupt, because most of them aren’t that. In an environment where bribery is encouraged (in the form of campaign contributions), the problem is that far too many members of Congress are too deep into the money culture to know what really drives them along. Nor do they want to know. As Greenwald suggests, this should be easy–a no-brainer. The Federal Reserve should be cracked open for all to see. Goldman Sachs should be totally cut off from government largess. If only more law-makers had pure hearts and the guts to dig deep and expose Goldman Sachs for what it is.