, Columnist
Mortgage Relief and Fear Gauges
Also RINs, last look, an odd investment dispute, hacking and unicorns.
Consumer relief.
Liz Hoffman and Serena Ng went and answered one of the great weird questions of modern finance, which is: How does Goldman Sachs Group Inc. do consumer mortgage relief, given that it doesn't have a consumer mortgage business? You may recall that when Goldman announced its $5.1 billion settlement for crisis-era mortgage misdeeds last year, $1.8 billion of that number was not a cash payment to the government but rather "consumer relief." That usually means modifying mortgages so delinquent borrowers can stay in their homes. But ... what mortgages? Whose homes? "Here's some good news if you have a mortgage with Goldman Sachs," I wrote at the time, because you didn't.