KAUFMAN: I personally have a hard time believing that folks as smart as you guys didn’t see the housing market was having a bubble [in 2007].  And that the idea of going short was a good decision based on prudent managers looking at a market that was clearly falling apart.

Kaufman asked Viniar what Goldman Sach’s obligations were to its clients, and whether they should  have stopped selling mortgage-backed CDO’s to them when Goldman itself was shorting them.  Viniar didn’t see any apparent conflict of interest.

Goldman Sachs stock is up today.