What We're Hearing

By now, you're probably sick of all the espousing from pundits on the Goldman Sachs/SEC case so I won't give you my view until the weekend but here's a few mortgage-related facts to keep in mind: Goldman (unlike many of its Street competitors in mortgages) didn't really own a nonprime lender until late in the game. It looked at buying plenty, but never bit, which tells you something about what it thought of the A- to D market. Over in the U.K. Goldman, in January 2008, bought a small subprime lender called Money Partners, previously owned by Kensington Mortgages and their subsequent owners, the South African firm Investec. Goldman has since mothballed Money Partners, according to my colleague over in London, Robert Thickett. What does all this mean? I'm not sure, but certainly Goldman wasn't bullish on the U.S. subprime sector...