Yesterday, in a brief but informative post, we asked and answered a simple question: "Confused Why So Many Foreign Banks Are Suddenly Being Charged By The US? Here's Why." Naturally, the reference was to such foreign banks as Standard Chartered, Barclays and HSBC (but not UBS and Credit Suisse) which have recently fallen under the US pre-election scapegoating scythe and have found themselves in hot water with US regulators.

Today, on the other hand, we learned courtesy of Goldman's 10-Q, that the US justice department will not press criminal charges against Goldman Sachs. This, despite Senator Carl "Shitty Deal" Levin, in one of the most bombastic kangaroo court spectacles on live TV ever, asking for a criminal investigation after the subcommittee he led spent years looking into Goldman, and in which he said Goldman misled Congress and investors (and according to which billions in fraudulent RMBS misrepresentations are all still only Fabrice Tourre's fault, at that time under 30 years old). And so we pose the same answer, and provide the same anwer, as yesterday, only flipped around: "Confused Why Goldman Will Face No Criminal Charges? Here's Why."

Since we are lazy, we will even reuse the same table. It needs no explanation.

And let that be a lesson to you dear foreign banks: if you want to play, you have to pay. Of course, the returns are more than worth it.