I don't think the feds cared about the retiree annuities at all, the feds cared because all of goldmans scdo's were insured through aig. once s&p rated this crapola triple A, aig got sucked in and insured goldman, not thinking goldman knew the mortgage collateral was non existent or junk. s&p made out, goldman made out, aig made out, and who gets screwed the little guy share holders.
side notes:
1. because some math and physics geniuses, yes physics majors, all under the age of 30, working for goldman, came up with a probability model that these middle managers could sell to the s&p higher ups that the scdo's were safe, they got the triple A rating and an open door to off load them as triple A packages and that's when aig was willing to insure all this junk. no one verified that the collateral was not really there, no bricks and mortar backing any of it up, just probability calculations that the failure rate was low.
2. S&P just paid a huge fine as well but not one of the execs was indicted and never will be. they are/were the gate keeper and were negligent at best, corrupt more than likely.
3. those math and physics guys made millions in a very short time and went on there way. I heard an interview of one guy and he said that he went to work for goldman because he could make 50x what he could make teaching. He knew that all the work he was doing was bogus but he didn't realize the impact it had. He thought, dog eat dog world and those that won were winning against other wall st. big shots not hurting the little guy. So smart but oh so blinded or was he. hmmmmmmmmm
