Gretchen Morgenson, my favorite Times' business reporter since Joe Nocerra went on leave, has a fascinating story in Sunday's paper suggesting that Goldman Sachs not only reaped the benefits of the financial meltdown but that it may have had a bigger hand in bringing it on than we knew."A.I.G. had long insured complex mortgage securities owned by Goldman and other firms against possible defaults. With the housing crisis deepening, A.I.G., once the worlds biggest insurer, had already paid Goldman $2 billion to cover losses the bank said it might suffer."A.I.G. executives wanted some of its money back, insisting that Goldman like a homeowner overestimating the damages in a storm to get a bigger insurance payment had inflated the potential losses. Goldman countered that it was owed even more, while also resisting consulting with third parties to help estimate a value for the securities."http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/business/07goldman.html?hpWould the investment, bond, and/or insurance gurus comment on the ins and outs of the story? I'd like to fully understand what went on here.UPDATE: And on Monday morning, we have another data set about how the regulation business is going. "In a Message to Democrats, Wall St. Sends Cash to G.O.P.""This year Chases political action committee is sending the Democrats a pointed message. While it has contributed to some individual Democrats and state organizations, it [Chase] has rebuffed solicitations from the national Democratic House and Senate campaign committees. Instead, it gave $30,000 to their Republican counterparts.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/us/politics/08lobby.html?hpUPDATE: NOT ANOTHER FELONY! Andrew Ross Sorkin has this gem today about an investor group paying itself a hefty dividend from a hospital corporation deeply in debt. Should we assume they were hoping for health-care reform and now think it's dead? Or????http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/business/09sorkin.html?ref=business