Greg Smith, Head of Gold(man) Sachs resigns today

TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. . . .

The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for. . . .

I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html?_r=1

Here is what Bix Weir has to say about it:

Holy Cow Batman! It's the HEAD of European Derivatives for one of the biggest CDS players in the world, Goldman Sachs! He's running for the hills just days before the settlement of the largest CDS payout in the history of the industry! Lay this fact on top of the retirement of the CEO of the CME and the removal of the CME as a European Derivative Clearing Organization and you have one toxic brew.

I've been doing some research into the settlement process of CDS's for the Friday Road Trip and from what I can surmise they call it the "Big Bang Protocol" for a reason! What a Cluster #!@*! When the DTCC came out and said this was only a $3.2B issue, they totally left out all the Greek CDS's that are not purchased to cover any specific bond investments...which is most of the Greek CDS market!

He is referring to his post yesterday, where the European Derivative Clearing Organization made a very important anouncement--getting out of the derivatives business.

March 13, 2012

CFTC Vacates CME Clearing Europe Limited Registration as a Derivatives Clearing Organization

Washington, DC--At the request of CME Clearing Europe Limited (CMECEL), pursuant to Section 7 of the Commodity Exchange Act, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an Order on March 13, 2012, vacating the registration of CMECEL as a derivatives clearing organization.

http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr6208-12

Did you catch that the removal of the status was "AT THE REQUEST OF THE CME"?

There is a RAGING wildfire behind the scenes as the entire $50,000,000,000,000 Credit Default Swap market is imploding due to the Greek default. The losses will come fast and furious once the auction is held on March 19th. The ISDA's 2009 "Big-Bang Protocol" will be put to the test next week.

Give it another week, and we'll see how this plays out. Supposedly, the Greek default agreement last week was only going to cost the bond insurers $3.2 billion. Bix is saying that their calculations did not include most of the losses. Between this and the resignation of the CEO of Goldman Sachs, I think they are trying to get out of the town square before the 2,000 pound bomb scatters their body parts to the four corners of the earth.