Fed chair Ben Bernanke said in his testimony before Congress today that the Fed and SEC are looking into the relationship between Goldman Sachs (GS) and Greece. The EU has been examining the same issues.

Greece used derivatives created by Goldman to to cut its debt by $3.2 billion. But, the obligations were not eliminated, only deferred. And, now Greece has reached its day of financial reckoning and investors in its debt believe they were deceived. They probably were.

Goldman’s argument will be, as it usually is, that is was the only company smart enough to help Greece with its debt problems but it is not at fault in the matter of the deception. It supplied the gun, but did not pull the trigger.

Douglas A. McIntyre