Goldman fans flames for conspiracy theorists

Goldman Sachs hasn't had the best of press lately. A recent Rolling Stone article went as far as to describe the firm as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money". Others have noted that the firm's tentacles spread into every area of government and financial regulatory policy, prompting the nickname Government Sachs.

Given the slightly hysterical climate, you would expect the firm to keep a low profile and be extra cautious in its public pronouncements. So what does it do when one of its programmers gets caught in an alleged attempt to walk away with its top secret recipe for high-speed trading? It calls up the prosecutor and fans the flames by declaring "there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways.”

At least that's what Assistant US Attorney Joseph Facciponti told a judge at a bail hearing in New York.

Did Goldman really say that? Doh!