Even the big boys have a "bad hair day." Goldman Sachs (GS) fourth-quarter profit fell 52% year over year.The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that Goldman posted a profit of $2.39 billion, down from $4.95 billion a year ago. After preferred dividends, profit fell to $3.79 per share from $8.20 a year ago. Revenue dropped 10% to $8.64 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of $3.76 a share on $9 billion in revenue.

Other highlights of the report included:

Today wasn't about an Obama Supreme Court nominee, nor was it about reform or other legislation in the center of the known world (America). Today was simply about an E.U. and IMF coordinated E.U. bailout package measuring close to $1 trillion.

Cautious housing survey data about homeowners being buried further in their houses did little to harm the markets. In fact, this was one of the days where you ended up feeling bad if each of your stock picks wasn't up 4% or more.

Here were the unofficial closing bell levels from today's massive day:

Dow 10,785.74 +405.31 (3.90%)
S&P 500 1,159.68 +48.80 (4.39%)
Nasdaq 2,374.67 +109.03 (4.81%)

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It is an unfortunate thing that we live in a world where you are guilty until proven innocent in far too many cases. This is the burden that Goldman Sachs (GS) faces as it has been convicted in the court of public opinion. Not only has it been convicted, but the public does not actually care whether it is guilty or not. The public feels Goldman has done the nation wrong and must pay.

On Tuesday, Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, is testifying in front of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He will try to put his best foot forward, and hopefully it will not end up in his mouth. Blankfein may be top dog at the company, but he would do himself a big favor if he stays cool, calm and collected -- and maybe before the day is up someone will throw him a bone.

The public may want Goldman Sachs to pay, but how much should you pay for the stock under these circumstances?

With yet another day of little economic news, strong Apple earnings could not drive the market in any single direction throughout the trading day. International news took a backseat to US earnings reports and to intra-day headlines. Whether these markets were going to close in the red or black was not clear until today's final minutes of trading.

Here were the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 11,124.85 +7.79 (0.07%)
S&P 500 1,205.88 -1.29 (-0.11%)
Nasdaq 2,504.61 +4.30 (0.17%)

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Is this the first time you've heard about the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission? Probably. It seems that Treasury Secretary Geithner organized the commission to investigate what went wrong during the financial crisis of 2008! That's right 2008! Can you imagine -- the public has been clamoring for answers as to what happened during the meltdown, and now a year later they decided to open an investigation.

The Commission was created by Congress to examine the causes of the collapse that roiled global markets and led to a $700 billion U.S. bailout of the nation's banks.

The Security Police and Fire Professionals of America Retirement Fund has filed a lawsuit with the New York Supreme Court, naming Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and the company's board of directors as defendants.

The company's crime? Planning to pay $22 billion in bonuses "for corporate performance that has absolutely nothing to do with the skill of the company's employees." Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag told Reuters that the lawsuit is without merit.

Goldman Sachs's (GS) normally reclusive CEO and noted theologian Lloyd Blankfein has been conducting an unprecedented number of interviewers of late to try to bolster the company's image.

Maybe they'd be better off if he crawled back into his shell.

In an interview with London's Sunday Times, Mr. Blankfein explained that Goldman Sachs is "doing God's work."

Who does our Treasury Secretary speak to most of the time? Yup. You guessed it. It's the big three bankers.

Who are they? First, we have Lloyd Blankenstein, CEO of Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE GS). Then we have Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Company (NYSE JPM) and then CEO, Vikam Pandt of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE C).

You are probably also wondering how do we know this? The Associated Press did a review of Geithner's calendar under the Freedom of Information Act.

In his first seven months on the job, Geithner made at least 80 contacts with the "big three." Not only that Geithner jumps to the phone when they call. They are the dominant players on Wall Street who can move markets and even economies.

In the wake of widespread populist outcry over his company's ability to profiteer off of government bailout money, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein is joining the chorus of people lashing out over excessive bonuses.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Speaking at a banking conference in Frankfurt, Blankfein said that guaranteed multi-year contracts for bankers should be banned.

"Compensation continues to generate controversy and anger," Blankfein said, according to Bloomberg. "And, in many respects, much of it is understandable and appropriate. There is little justification for the payment of outsized discretionary compensation when a financial institution lost money for the year."

Talk of "green shoots" abounds with the S&P 500 up 40% from its lows in March 2009, but Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein remains cautious in his outlook for the global economy. "I think it's going to be a long, protracted recession," he said while speaking on a panel at the annual International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) conference in Tel Aviv.

Blankfein also emphasized the importance of intelligent regulation and risk management, warning fellow finance executives not to discount the latter. "The culture of risk management is very important and hard to legislate, but at the end of the day, you have to make sure that the people on the risk management side of your operation are just as capable, and maybe therefore, just as well-paid and have the career opportunities as people on the producing side of the business."

The founders of Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) can stop rolling over in their graves. Management is about to bring the firm back to its rightful place on Wall Street. With a $5 billion equity offering, the esteemed firm is going to pay the government back the money from the TARP and get on with being the biggest, baddest firm on the Street. Enough of the handcuffs. It wants to get back in the capital markets ring and knock everybody else out.

Goldman Sachs as a bank? Just wasn't in their entrepreneurial blood. They could no more cater to the whims of regulators than a Ferrari can be used as a school bus. These guys are risk takers and big rewarders. They do their homework, make big bets, and reap the profits, if there are any, or lose millions. And when they're right, they want the money. As a bank and TARP recipient, there were rules about risk and limits on pay. That really chafed.

Yesterday, in his speech to the Council on Institutional Investors, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein spoke about Wall Street pay. As a fellow who made $43 million in 2008 -- to be fair, Goldman actually made a $2.3 billion profit in 2008 -- Blankfein obviously knows a thing or two about the Wall Street pay envelope.

And he gets points for trying to balance Goldman's interests with those of the public -- but he still missed the mark. I think Wall Street needs its pay in escrow -- if its deals pay off after three years, bankers get the escrow cash; if not, that escrow pays the deals' investors.

An era of greed that began with the election of Ronald Reagan has come to an abrupt end. That means that the seething emotions of greed and envy that come along with bonus time at investment banks will have fewer dollars attached to them. And talent will flow to government and academia rather than Wall Street. This could be good for the U.S.

Some of those masters of the universe in the investment banking industry have seen the value of their stock tumble (and many of them are going without bonuses this year). Here are some of the "casualties":

As the sordid tale of Bernard Madoff continues to unspool, it has become increasingly clear that somebody -- in fact, a lot of somebodies -- were asleep at the switch. Beyond the standard warning signs, like Madoff's incredible secrecy, his surprisingly consistent rate of return, and the clubby nature of his selling staff, there were far more obvious portents. For example, Madoff's chief compliance officer was his brother Peter, and one of the compliance attorneys was his niece. For that matter, the fact that Harry Markopolos, a Boston accountant, has been urging the SEC to investigate Madoff for the last nine years should have been a hint. The same, of course, goes for the 2006 SEC investigation that found violations, but didn't feel obliged to take any substantive action.

As the SEC attempts to assign blame in finest Three Stooges form, it's worth noting that this is hardly the first time that a lack of serious governmental regulation has reared its ugly head this year. At the moment, mobs are currently clamoring for Dick Fuld's head, with a healthy side order of Hank Greenberg, John Thain, John Mack, Lloyd Blankfein, Jimmy Cain, and pretty much everyone who works in New York's financial district. The general perspective seems to be that these men engaged in business practices that ran the gamut from risky to actionable and now should be forced to pay for the economy that they have ruined.

This post is part of a series featuring bargain stocks that are worth a look now. See more Cheap Stocks.

Of the 15 components on our Cheap Stocks roster, Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) is the one that my colleague Nick Perry dubbed "a bold choice." With plenty of question marks still surrounding the major financial names, there are undoubtedly those who will go even further and dub this pick "an unwise choice." On the other hand, some will probably just say we're stealing Warren Buffett's idea. With all potential criticisms thusly taken into consideration, let's take a look at what makes Goldman so hard to resist.

First, let's be upfront about the fundamentals. Amid the recent financial crisis, Goldman Sachs is one of the few major names on Wall Street that still has a pulse. Although it's now a bank holding company rather than an investment bank, Goldman stands out by sheer virtue of the fact that it has dodged bankruptcy rumors and has not needed an emergency rescue by one of its peers.

In fact, Goldman Sachs survived because it knew that most of those subprime-derived securities were toxic, and placed bets that the investments would lose value. Regardless, the bank still sold those securities to its clients, so we're not talking about the financial equivalent of Mother Theresa. On the bright side, nor are we discussing the financial equivalent of Nero -- and in today's market, there are plenty of favorable comparisons to be made between GS and its sector peers.