Goldman Nemesis Says Bank Misleading Lawmakers

Matt Taibbi, who portrayed Goldman Sachs as evil personified in a much-discussed Rolling Stone article over the summer, has the bank in his sights again. In his blog on True/Slant, Taibbi accuses Goldman of misleading and purposely confusing lawmakers about the practice known as naked short selling as new financial rules are debated. The blog is a sneak peek at another investigative piece he's got coming out this month, this time on the collapse of Lehman and Bear Stearns.

Among his beefs is that Goldman is giving lawmakers a fact sheet that he calls bogus because it draws conclusions on naked short selling based on stats from normal short selling. "This is like trying to draw conclusions about the frequency of date rape by looking at the number of weddings held," he writes. "The two things have absolutely nothing to do with one another." One economist agrees and tells him, "Members of Congress are probably confused as well.” (More Goldman Sachs stories.)