He says Goldman occupies a gray area between public and private, unlike anything since Standard Oil. They have enormous influence with the government, one major reason is they have so many former employees in high-ranking regulatory agency positions.
All the appearance is that Goldman gets whatever they want from the government, and that securities fraud was involved, they were selling garbage mortgage-backed products to retail customers then privately betting against them. helped of course by the ratings agencies who got most their income from places like Goldman.
Lest you think Taibbbi is making sh*t up or seeing phantom conspiracies.
Senate probes banks for meltdown fraud
The congressional investigation appears to focus on whether internal communications, such as email, show bankers had private doubts about whether mortgage-related securities they were putting together were as financially sound as their public pronouncements suggested.
Goldman Sachs is among the banks getting subpoenaed, of course.