SEC in the Hunt - This Should Be Good

"July 16 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenaed Wall Street's biggest firms and hedge-fund advisers in a widening effort to crack down on suspected manipulation of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. shares, said three people with knowledge of the matter. "

Gee. Yesterday, the head of the SEC pulled off the regulatory piece de resistance of making something illegal that was already illegal. Or he did something else but nobody is sure what it was.

Now the SEC is going after Goldman Sachs and the question of whether Goldman or any of the other brokers had an unfair role in the stock price decline of Bear Stearns or Lehman. Goldman summarily denies it:

""We went out of our way to be supportive of Bear and were rigorous about conducting business as usual," spokesman Lucas van Praag said. He said Goldman never altered its terms for doing business with Bear, even as lenders pulled their financing and some trading partners retreated..."

Goldman is scary good at what they do. If the Keysone Cops at the SEC find a hair out of place on Goldman, I'll be very surprised.