Saved from disaster, they turned the ship around and headed right back for the iceberg.

That’s my favorite line from Matt Taibbi’s new post on Goldman. He sheds light on just how grim their situation was, before they were embraced by the warm arms of government and their old CEO, Henry Paulson. Goldman’s conversion to a bank-holding company (and the ability to issue FDIC-backed debt) did save their ass, it seems.

Tabbi, as always, does a great job of getting to the the meat of the issue:

If these organizations really were on the brink of collapse last year, and would have died without massive government intervention, what does that say about the giant bonuses they’re paying themselves now?

Taibbi credits much of the new info to Joe Hagan’s NY Mag piece, “Tenacious G” It’s a great read. Excerpt:

Not a single Wall Street executive I spoke with, including several Goldman Sachs alumni, believe those hedges would have survived an overall collapse of the financial system.