Sheesh.

Why don't we just cut to the chase and rename the NYSE "Goldman Annex"?

Another Goldman man joins NYSE

NYSE Group has tapped Goldman Sachs trading executive Duncan Niederauer as its president and co-chief operating officer, setting up the possibility that he may become the second executive in recent years from the bank to run the Big Board, reports the Wall Street Journal. The announcement, late on Monday, raises questions about how long current Big Board CEO John Thain, who also hails from Goldman Sachs, will remain in power. Mr Thain has announced two big mergers at the NYSE and is busy overhauling the 214-year-old exchange but has also said he may only stay in the job a total of five years. He started three years ago, in 2004.

They have the largest trading operation on the floor (Spear Leeds), they own 30% of ARCA, which merged with the NYSE last year. (In a ridiculous conflict of interest, they advised both ARCA and NYX on that deal). They posted almost $10b in net income last year, the vast majority of it attributable to their proprietary trading desk. While most of that trading does not take place in the equity markets, the derivatives, swaps and interest rate instruments that make Goldman their money are based upon information that ultimately emanates from those markets. If people don't think that Goldman has an informational advantage due to their position, they're nuts. The pretense of independence of the management and the board of the NYSE makes the Grasso era look good.

One trader puts it this way: "in the interests of the individual investor, first we ought to put everyone at Goldman in jail. Then we'll figure out what they were doing".