Those cases also put him at odds with federal officials, a tension that is present in the mortgage area, too.
Asset prices spiraled downward on Monday, particularly in the mortgage area, after Lehman filed for bankruptcy, Mr. Viniar said.
"We have learned hard lessons from the recent difficulties in the subprime mortgage area,"' said Vickie A. Tillman, an executive vice president at Standard & Poor's.
Because of Goldman's dealings with these companies in the mortgage area, was Goldman using nonpublic information (the 'mosaic') about these companies' weaknesses when the firm put on these negative trades?
In the mortgage area, Annaly Capital Management, a popular real estate investment trust that invests in mortgages, fell 8.7 percent, and an iShares mortgage exchange-traded fund lost 10.4 percent.
Investors say they are most troubled by the accelerating pace of write-downs and credit downgrades in the residential mortgage area, but they are also starting to question the value of bonds in related areas like commercial mortgages and consumer debt.
Outside the mortgage area North Fork is basically a spread lender that borrows short term (mostly via deposits) and lends longer term.
Notwithstanding the problems in the mortgage area, the new management team that came in a couple of years ago appears to be making progress in rebuilding the firm.
Gene T. Pisasale: The big picture is that U.S. GDP growth is decelerating due to the weakness in the auto and housing sectors, which has been exacerbated by the weakness in the subprime mortgage area.
We also have a legislative proposal to raise the limits on the amount of tax-exempt financing states and localities can use to help this industry and help in the mortgage area.
Perjury, forgery, and tax evasion are among the potentially criminal acts that have been well-documented in the mortgage area.
