A few things : (i) Goldman did not rate any bonds, the rating agencies did. (ii) For every buyer of a security there is a seller. Goldman's trading desk (like

A few things : (i) Goldman did not rate any bonds, the rating agencies did. (ii) For every buyer of a security there is a seller. Goldman's trading desk (likely) had a conflict of interest with their bankers. However, just selling something that goes down doesn't make someone evil (it's logically similar to buying a stock that later goes up). (iii) AIG failed due to its own inadequacies : They believed that they were the smartest people in the room, when (in retrospect) they were making a huge blunder.