Goldman Sachs Wins - Investors Lose

The SEC accused Goldman Sachs of fraud today. The SEC claimed Goldman made certain representations to investors that may not have been accurate.

Hurray for the SEC - this is a signal that perhaps SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, the new sheriff in town, is walking the talk on protecting investors. Only time will tell.

It appears that Goldman Sachs, like Merrill Lynch, AIG, Lehman, and others all played a role in our sub prime market collapse. The difference is that Goldman Sachs was the one smart enough to not eat its own cooking.

I find it particularly irrational that investors actually believe that firms like Goldman Sachs would ever be giving investors anything other than advice that would serve them.

After equity markets were up 60 percent, Goldman Sachs announces that the bull market may have begun.
After leading us to disaster in 2008 and early 2009, bailed out financial firms offer us investing advice for 2010.

I'm with author Michael Lewis on this one. Wall Street's interests are not aligned with investors. But don't only blame Wall Street. We investors don't learn from past mistakes. For whatever reason, we continue to listen to firms that prove over and over again that they are not acting in our best interests.

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Allan Roth

Allan S. Roth is the founder of Wealth Logic, an hourly based financial planning and investment advisory firm that advises clients with portfolios ranging from $10,000 to over $50 million. The author of How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street, Roth teaches investments and behavioral finance at the University of Denver and is a frequent speaker. He is required by law to note that his columns are not meant as specific investment advice, since any advice of that sort would need to take into account such things as each reader's willingness and need to take risk. His columns will specifically avoid the foolishness of predicting the next hot stock or what the stock market will do next month.

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