Goldman Hid $1.3B of Losses in "Orphan Month"

What was not reported last night is that Goldman had changed their reporting periods to begin the 1st quarter in January 2009 when they declared themselves to be a bank holding company. Prior to that, their fiscal 2008 year ended on November 30.

This made the month of December 2008 an 'orphan month' that was ignored in the financial headlines.

Goldman took this opportunity to realize some hefty writedowns in that December one month report, to the tune of approximately $1.3 Billion in pre-tax losses.