The Washington Post among others are noting that Goldman Sachs had a bad week. Sure, the SEC civil suit, the DOJ criminal inquiry, the US Senate hearings, a dip in its stock prices, So what's going to happened to the hot shots at Goldman Sachs? Nothing. Unless the DOJ find a smoking gun and that gun really has to be smoking -- nothing is going to happen.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein  -- who probably would have been a Treasury Secretary in somebody's Administration, if not for those emails, stupid large bonuses paid out in a recession, and this bad PR -- is going about like a man confident, defending his firm as if he is defending motherhood, or fatherhood, or apple pie. On "The Charlie Rose Show"  yesterday, he was asked the "tough question"  -- Whether Goldman investment advisers had ever bought securities from the firm, sold them to clients, and then bet against those same securities. Mr.Blankfein paused. "And after a solid six seconds of silence, sought to explain that Goldman's role as a 'market maker.' We're like a machine, that lets people buy and sell what they want to buy and sell. That's not the advisory business. That's just a facility for market making."  

 For us rubes, Goldman's key defense seems to be that "it is a market maker" and the insiders with whom it plays know that. So! Goldman CEO is saying in so many words,  'It's ain't fraud. it's business, rube."

 For those who know, Goldman is so far in the system that it is the system. And only a really smoking gun can get it declared rogue. As for the stock drop? Those are the nervous nellies and the shorters. I wouldn't be surprised if some of their own crew is shorting the stock.

So? It's market making!