Posted on 05/30/2017 1:56:51 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Venezuelans are furious with Goldman Sachs for buying the country's government bonds last week, which critics say gives a lifeline to an incompetent government that is starving its people.
Goldman confirmed the purchase Tuesday morning after the Wall Street Journal first reported it.
Goldman stands to make a nice profit from the purchase. It allegedly paid just 31 cents on the dollar, or $865 million, for bonds that were originally worth $2.8 billion. In other words, it got a huge discount on the bonds that pay a high return.
Goldman Sachs defended its action, saying it bought the bonds -- issued in 2014 by state-run oil company PDVSA -- with the hope that life in Venezuela will improve. The value of the bonds would then rise too.
"We are invested in PDVSA bonds because, like many in the asset management industry, we believe the situation in the country must improve over time," Goldman (GS) said in a statement.
Goldman bought the bonds from another broker and says it didn't interact with the Venezuelan government. But the government seems to have already benefited from an increase in reserves and some Venezuelans are livid at Goldman's decision.
Venezuela's top opposition leader and president of the National Assembly Julio Borges fired off a letter to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein saying he was concerned and "outraged" that the investment bank had bought the bonds.
"It is apparent Goldman Sachs decided to make a quick buck off the suffering of the Venezuelan people," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
There is NO PATRIOTISM @ Goldman Sachs. If you were to grab their wallets or their balls, they might complain, but otherwise they’re just a flock of amoral money-grubbing pond scum!
What is in it for Goldman? They know damned well the bonds they bought are toilet paper and will never be repaid.
As opposed to a competent communist dictatorship?
Goldman Sachs gives a lifeline to American’s incompetent government as well.
In fact, they and their Federal Reserve masters created much of the incompetence with massive debt, printed money and manipulated interest rates.
Goldman Sucks profiting from the misery of others ? Surely not.
Will those bonds allow G/S to buy Venezuela? Can't blame the locals for being mad as *ell that desperate pols would sell their country rather than cede power.
Isn't this a bit like what Greek bankers have done, taking loans from EU bankers they know Greece can never pay back?
I’m a little outraged, too.
Wonder how the MSM would react if hundreds of Venezuelan expatriates in New York marched into Goldman Sachs offices and had a peaceful sit in.
I’m not a big fan of Goldman Sachs. I view them as part of the problem. We now have some of their past employees in the Trump administration too.
My thought on that is that they have high level knowledge of national and international monetary transactions and relations. They may be an asset to Trump. I don’t honestly know their full impact.
I suspect that if Goldman Sachs hadn’t provided some funding, there would be folks trashing them for not helping a nation whose citizens were in danger starving.
Goldman Sachs couldn’t win this one either way.
This isn’t a massive sum of money.
They play it up what the original value of the bonds was, then try to trash GS about what profit they stand to make, but don’t take into consideration the bonds may be worth nothing in short order too.
I watch these protests and believe the citizens would vote for the next communisto who promises them more free stuff.
****We are invested in PDVSA bonds because, like many in the asset management industry, we believe the situation in the country must improve over time****
Bull! They are too big to fail and saw a way to continue to prop up their globalist friends knowing that the American tax payer will eventually bail them out.
The country has nowhere to go but up.
My guess is that Goldman is betting on a more moderate (but equally globalist) Venezuelan leader to take over.
Venezuela is quite possibly the most blessed country in the hemisphere in terms of natural resources, farmland, and location.
my guess is this might be
some form of money laundering,
political donation, or extortion.
First off, Russia has lent Ven billions and no one complains about that. Secondly, how does buying bonds from 2014 save the Ven government? This is just normal business. All it takes is one mid east war and Ven is rolling in money again.
Goldman Sachs that conspired on Jeckyl Island with the government to create a private bank that would be sold as a public bank for the good of the country? That Goldman Sachs?
They are counting on their cheaply bought off "FRIENDS" in the kongress coming to the rescue with a large cash influx to Venezuela. Bet on it.
Maduro is desperate for money. He will take it now. Later, he will rail against the Yankee imperialists and try to default. Goldman isn't stupid either. They are politically very strong in the USA (they own everybody in Washington), and any default and they can go after the equivalent value of Venezuelan government property in the USA with large parts of Fed.gov behind them.
Actually, GS is betting on things getting better in Venezuela, namely an overthrow of the Govt probably. They probably sense the time will soon come when this revolution starts. I’m no fan of GS, but they are making a bet that the bad guys are soon out the door.
The story would be an outrage if GS had directly invested in a new issue of bonds, lending money to the current Dictatorship of VZ.
Oh, they will be repaid, alright. By you and I...
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