Goldman Sachs: "#$%& It, We'll Just Pretend December Never Happened!!"

[HotRocks]

So that's how they did it: The Case of the Missing Month

In a nutshell, they happened, for some really weird reason, to switch their financial calendar around moving into 2009.  And oddly - I mean what a crazy oversight here - somehow the entire month of December 2008 and its pretax lose of $1.8 billion just never seems to have happened.  News reports are comparing last year's earnings, which spanned from December to February, with this year's which span from January to March - and without that $1.8 billion of writedowns, things are coming up roses.

But hey, there's all kinds of stuff you can grow flowers in...

[PromiseLandAkitas]

So that's how they did it: The Case of the Missing Month

In a nutshell, they happened, for some really weird reason, to switch their financial calendar around moving into 2009.  And oddly - I mean what a crazy oversight here - somehow the entire month of December 2008 and its pretax lose of $1.8 billion just never seems to have happened.  News reports are comparing last years earnings, which spanned from December to February, with this years which span from January to March - and without that $1.8 billion of writedowns, things are coming up roses.

But hey, there's all kinds of stuff you can grow flowers in...

I wonder how much of a bonus was given to the accountant who thought up the plan to switch to a calender year reporting from the fiscal year reporting that they had been using....he could be set for life.

[Alecia]

I think I should go into finance, I can think of a lot of BS ways to get around the truth too. For a mere one BILLION dollars....mwahahahaha.

[Tropicalgirl]

This Wall Street circus gets more and more surreal with each passing day - is there no end to the chicanery? 

Obviously not, where is the financial television MSM reporting on this BS?  After the shaming of CNBC by Stewart and others, you'd think they would want to repair their tattered reps by actually reporting these stories.  This would be a huge story to break, aggressive reporters could start a new career on a expose on this story.

Edited for clarification, television MSM - obviously this was reported in NYT.

[PromiseLandAkitas]

I think I should go into finance, I can think of a lot of BS ways to get around the truth too. For a mere one BILLION dollars....mwahahahaha.

you will have to take JDD's picture though, or maybe he will loan it to you....

[Sabotage]

this is seriously ridiculous where's the "POPULIST RAGE?" 

but no, seriously...

i guess it doesn't really matter though since Obama is wants to change the accounting rules anyway.

CHEATS, ALL OF THEM! DIRTY CAPITALISTS!!!

[transplant]

And the creative reporting rounds yet another bend. Soon its going to be "and in the one day that we are reporting from the second quarter we had gains of 200 billion dollars. So we had a 200B profit on a wednesday last month

[Fitzwaryn]

I seem to remember something similar from a Tom Clancy novel. The Chinese or someone had crashed the American market with a virus or a trojan or something that had destroyed stock market records.

They simply announced that none of the trading that took place had actually occurred and backed everything up to a week or so earlier.

Maybe that's what we need to do. Just announce that all the market action since fall of last year never actually happened. It was a "technical" error with the computers and start the market tomorrow morning where it was last year at the peak of the housing bubble.

Simple solution. We'd all be rich and well off again and there would no longer be a Depression. It woul dbe rendered null and void by Executive Order.

[Tropicalgirl]

Fitz -  I like it!  Can you be in charge of making that happen?!

[risquebznss]

Reminds me of Steve Martin's stand up routine.  "How to avoid taxes with two simple words in the english language.    I forgot!"

[muletowntrooper]

The U.S. government did something similar a couple decades ago.  I can't remember EXACTLY how it was set up - around the time I joined USMC - but it was basically a little Reganomics tweak to the federal budget.  The federal payroll was disbursed on the 15th and last day of each month.  The federal deficit was looking bad, so they came up with a solution - sort of.  Change the pay dates to the 1st and 15th.  It carried assets over another month and put off liabilities by a month.  The problem is it is a one shot gun.  Pull the trigger like that once and you cannot do it again without just really erasing the books.

[transplant]

Pull the trigger like that once and you cannot do it again without just really erasing the books.

Well, I think you just predicted the new accounting methods for next quarter!

[risquebznss]

No wonder wall street recruits budding chefs at culinary institutes.  They really know how to cook the books.

[Fitzwaryn]

Fitz -  I like it!  Can you be in charge of making that happen?!

Sorry I'm not qualified for a government position. I paid my taxes.

[Xeluc]

How ironic just yesterday I was reading a thread about Goldman Sachs and how they posted profits for q1 or something. Now here's why.