[bryantm3]

Strangelet,
Although it does appear that the folks at Goldman Sachs take advantage of the boom-bust cycle, I wouldn't say that they are the ultimate cause of it. The fact of the matter is that there are hundreds of thousands of investors who do the exact same thing, in addition to other companies, on the principle that if prices are going up, you sell, and when prices go back down, you buy. To say that Goldman Sachs is responsible for the entire worldwide economic crash seems to be looking for a scapegoat in this complex recession.

I will not admit that de-regulation has caused the problem; however, I think that our banking regulatory system is outdated, and much of the investment banking that goes on these days is much different than the banking that went on 20-30 years ago, and much of it has fallen underneath the radar. Goldman Sachs is responsible for expanding the types of banking that they do and doing it in such a way that it does not fall under a regulatory agency, but they're not the only ones.