Bob Chapman on Goldman Sachs proprietary trading

"Goldman Sachs is ceasing proprietary trading in one type of structured debt. A group of traders who were focused on making bets on collateralized loan obligations with the New York-based firm’s own money are now handling trades for clients.
Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman denied allegations the U.S. bank misled investors about mortgage derivatives it sold them. The firm is being probed by U.S. prosecutors over whether the bank misled clients when it sold them collateralized debt obligations as its own traders bet that the value of the securities would drop. Wall Street firms are facing unprecedented scrutiny from lawmakers and prosecutors over whether they mis-sold CDOs linked to the subprime mortgages that caused the credit crisis.
The fallout from the European debt crisis raises the risk of a ‘double dip’ recession for the global economy, said Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd. ‘When you have a vulnerable post-crisis economic recovery and crises reverberating in the aftermath of that, you have some very serious risks to the global business cycle,’ Roach said. This concept of the global double dip which no one wants to talk about is alive and well." extract from the International forecaster of 19 May 2010