Libertarian law professor Richard Epstein has a new column in Forbes under the headline "Leave Goldman Alone." He writes that Goldman weathered a Senate hearing, SEC charges, and now a federal criminal investigation: "Just what does the public gain from three-prong federal inquisition? Those are hard to quantify, but it is easy to tote up the losses. Start with the disappearance of over $20 billion in market capitalization for Goldman shareholders....I fear, however, that the biggest loss from this three-front government campaign against Goldman lies in the declining role of American capital markets in fierce global competition."

The sexually transmitted disease metaphors involving Goldman Sachs are spreading like, well, you know what. First the Financial Times, now TheStreet.com, which in the course of an otherwise fairly sensible article about Warren Buffett being a hypocrite (derivitives are ok for him but not for everyone else) says that Goldman Sachs is "is facing fraud charges from the SEC, and a reported Justice Department investigation of criminal wrongdoing for structuring just the type of derivative contracts that gave a lot of investors metaphorical genital warts."

The Street.com wonders whether Mr. Buffett "would be so supportive of Goldman and its behavior if he didn't hold a $5 billion preferred stake in the firm."

Maine Public Broadcasting and the Bangor Daily News have quite a story from the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting on how big wind and Maine government interact. From the Bangor Daily News story:

While he was Maine's chief utilities regulator, Kurt Adams accepted an ownership interest in a leading wind energy company.

One month later, in May 2008, he went to work for that company, First Wind, as a senior vice president.

More:

It's not clear how much the ownership interest — described as 1.2 million units of equity — that Adams received while still at the commission is worth, since First Wind has not put a value on the equity units in its Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company said the units of equity are not the same as stock options.

The Wall Street Journal over the weekend (April 30) had an interview with R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. about his book After the Hangover, which was reviewed here back on April 8.

A columnist of the Financial Times, Lucy Kellaway, has an article today dissecting the language in the Goldman Sachs performance reviews that were released by the Senate as part of its Goldman Sachs hearing. She credits Fabrice Tourre for a "linguistic gift," a "new phrase": "Fabrice's assertions that he must try harder to be a "firm culture carrier". I predict this will take off. It suggests that one can carry the Goldman culture in the same way one can carry a sexually transmitted disease."

First of all, the FT writer's claim that this is a "new phrase" suggests she's not much familiar with Goldman Sachs or its culture. I wrote back in July of 2009 in the Long Goldman Post about China "using Goldman as the 'culture carrier,' to use a popular Goldman phrase."

Secondly, I've been writing here regularly about the ways that traditional anti-Jewish feelings about bankers play out in the popular narrative of the financial crisis, but this is a new low. For those unfamilar with the background, here's how a Daily Mail account put it:

Hitler, who reportedly had sex with a Jewish prostitute in Vienna in 1908, put syphilis high on his political agenda, devoting 13 pages to the disease in his book Mein Kampf.

The job of "combating syphilis - the Jewish disease - should be the task of the entire German nation," he wrote.

"The health of the nation will be regained only by eliminating the Jews."

The New York Times mentions its own Janet Robinson and Arthur Sulzberger Jr. in an article headlined "Big Paydays for Chiefs of Top Media Companies." But the article puts Mr. Sulzberger's 2009 compensation at $4.8 milllion, well below the $6 million that the company's proxy statement and many other accounts put it at.

The New York Times, which has fought countless expensive legal battles to support the principle that under the First Amendment it shouldn't have to disclose the identities of its anonymous sources -- remember Arthur Sulzberger Jr. running around with a "free Judith Miller" button -- has an editorial this morning supporting a law that would make it illegal for corporations to engage in what it calls "unlimited attack and advocacy ads financed from the shadows by special-interest money." The newspaper wants the corporate ceos or donors who pay for the ads to have to appear in the ads like Frank Purdue in a chicken commercial.

The Times writes:

The United States Chamber of Commerce immediately, predictably, warned that the new disclosure rules would "silence constitutionally protected speech." Actually, the measure applies sunshine, not silence, to secretive, end-run campaign spending.

The New York Times has an excellent article that finally applies some much-needed skepticism to the financial "reform" legislation, as opposed to cheerleading for it. Some of the criticism seems a bit excessive; one Yale professor is paraphrased as complaining that "the financial system would remain vulnerable to panics." Designing a panic-proof financial system seems a bit much to ask from any legislation, given human nature. And there's a case for just passing the darn thing and getting it over with to reduce uncertainty over what the rules will be -- the old, "I can make money under any set of rules, as long as I know what they are." Still, good stuff, and refreshing to see it in the Times news columns, of all places.

The Wall Street Journal has an article today about Sears Holdings in advance of the company's annual meeting. The article notes that "the shares have nearly doubled in the past year, and the company has notched stronger sales in recent months," but the article is mostly devoted to criticism of Sears Holdings for having an "interim" ceo, Bruce Johnson, for 27 months under chairman Edward Lampert. Two points seem worth noting. From the article:

"In situations where there is a control shareholder, it is critical that companies have a strong CEO at the helm," said Olayinka Fadahunsi, a spokesman for New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, who manages the state's Common Retirement Fund. It owned 213,759 Sears shares as of March 31. "A two-plus-year search process is much longer than outside shareholders would like."

"What troubles me is when I hear people say that all of government is inherently bad," the Washington Examiner catches President Obama saying in a commencement speech at the University of Michigan over the weekend. What "people" has Mr. Obama heard saying that? No one. It's a straw man -- a phony argument that Mr. Obama or his speech writers insert into the speech because it is easier to knock down fake arguments than the real arguments of Mr. Obama's critics. Here's a real argument: We don't need a federal government that is twice as expensive as it was at the end of the Clinton administration.

The whole speech is worth a read for a sense of Mr. Obama's rhetorical take on the big-government/small-government debate.

ReasonTV has a short video explaining a point we've been harping on here for some time -- that it's utterly misleading for General Motors and Treasury Secretary Geithner to claim that GM's government bailout has been "repaid in full." The Washington Examiner also has an editorial today on the point. The Reason video moves the ball ahead by pointing out that, even while claiming it has "repaid in full," GM has applied for a $10 billion government loan to retool its production line to make more fuel-efficient cars. It's a bit like a homeowner refinancing his second mortage, except that when a homeowner refinances a mortgage, usually he goes for a lower interest rate.

Warren Buffett had his Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting over the weekend, and one thing he spoke of was the value of the dollar. " "Events in the world over the last few years make me more bearish on all currencies in terms of holding their value over time," Marketwatch quotes Mr. Buffett as saying. The story goes on:

Still, Buffett noted that as long as the U.S. borrows in U.S. dollars, there's "no possibility of default." "You don't default when you can print your own currency," he added.

Bill King commented in his "King Report," which a FutureOfCapitalism reader forwarded: "Buffett's statement that 'you don't default when you can print your own currency' suggests Warren has lost something on his fast ball. Didn't the USSR print its own currency? How about Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Zimbabwe, etal?"

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is responding to the Gulf Coast oil spill with a campaign urging President Obama to end all offshore drilling. "President Obama: No More Offshore Drilling" is the call, backed by an email I was forwarded by a reader that claims, "As the ongoing spill off the Gulf Coast shows yet again, there is no such thing as clean and safe offshore oil drilling. Yet the Obama Administration has announced plans to open hundreds of miles of coastline to this dangerous and destructive practice. At a time when we need energy policies that protect our health, our environment, and our long-term energy security, we must call for an end to -- not an expansion of -- offshore drilling."

Bloomberg News begins an article about Lehman's Richard Fuld's compensation by declaring, "Before Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs took his place, Richard S. Fuld Jr.'s angry face was the universal symbol of Wall Street greed."

Is that even true, that Lloyd Blankfein's face is "the universal symbol of Wall Street greed"? It's be one thing if this claim appeared in Mother Jones, where the Blooomberg reporter who wrote the article, James Sterngold, is a regular contributor. (Update: Bloomberg PR e-mails to correct that he used to be a contributor but hasn't written for Mother Jones since 2008.)

But this is Bloomberg, the news service that prides itself on straightforward and direct news reporting that separates news and opinion. The article isn't even about Mr. Blankfein, and there is no indication that he or his firm, which by the way is a big Bloomberg customer, were given a chance to respond to the cheap shot.

Intrade.com is offering the oppportunity to bet on whether Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein will keep his job through the end of the year and on whether Goldman will settle with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The New York Times reports on this development in an article that concludes with a claim that the Intrade betting is "drawing criticism strikingly similar to that leveled against the complex financial instruments Mr. Blankfein and his underlings were questioned about on Tuesday." The Times quotes George R. Neumann, "a University of Iowa professor of economics who in 1988 invented the Iowa Political Stock Market, the predecessor to the still-popular Iowa Electronic Markets.":

Professor Neumann's online futures market serves primarily as a teaching tool, while Intrade is a profit-making exchange that charges 5 cents a contract.

"I don't know what the economic gain is," Professor Neumann said of the betting on Goldman and its chief, "and it's in bad taste."