I submit that your links are not appropriate for Hacker News. They are not of sufficient quality that someone with a hacker's interest in finance would find them interesting.
Link 1 is an exceptionally low quality discussion about a Goldman analyst report. I can stop there, but I'll add further that if you actually read the report under discussion, it says quite clearly that Ireland will not be OK unless there is a bailout, due to the risks that all financial institutions regardless of capitalization face during a crisis. In other words, Goldman's analysts believes Ireland will be OK given a good bailout, which is not a shocking opinion at all.
Link 2 I have little comment on, because it provides no useful contextual information. Trying to read this account of financial engineering is like trying to read about a science study in the daily paper. All the details are left out, and a newspaper cannot be trusted to get the big picture right. The phrase "special kind of swap with fictional exchange rates", for example, might be accurate, but it just smells like the writer misunderstood a forward contract or something.
Link 3 is Matt Taibbi-level flamebait, except Taibbi is a better writer. I have no patience for this stuff anymore.
None of these links have been accurate or meaningfully informative, yet they seem to be very popular. The financial news discussions on HN is becoming increasingly frustrating as it becomes more and more like r/economics. If someone disagrees with any of my assessments, I would appreciate a reply.
Goldman Sachs says Ireland will be ok
http://www.politics.ie/economy/143357-goldman-sachs-says-ire...
How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,676634,00....
How Goldman Sachs Made Tens of Billions of Dollars from the Economic Collapse of America
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16...
Oh, Goldman Sachs. Are there no depravity which you are absent from?