Goldman’s posture makes perfect sense. My understanding is that all the big banks were forced in Sept./Oct. 2008 by a combination of the Fed, Treasury and peer pressure to take the TARP money, lest any of them be singled out as “troubled” and then suffer the spiraling effect of a run on their deposits (bank or brokerage); fire sales of assets; lowered credit ratings; events of acceleration if not default; etc. But the fine print from the Fed in the TARP funding required that no matter how profitable and financially secure a bank was, it had to float shares (possibly debt?) to the public on the order of 25% (maybe 50%) of the TARP funding in order to qualify to pay back the TARP funding.

Not until now did any bank (even Goldman, which had among the least problems of any bank) find the political and economic climate suitable to issuing the necessary stock (and/or debt?). I understand that MANY of the TARP banks now WANT to (and are financially able to) repay their TARP money, but they CAN’T without the stock (debt?) issuance and perhaps some other TARP-induced restrictions. Meanwhile, they are cringing ever more under the specter of government intrusion into their management and business practices.