Fed failed to tell Obama about AIG bonuses!
"This is like the captain and the crew of the ship reserving the lifeboats, saying to hell with the passengers, we're going to take the lifeboats for ourselves, for the crew and the captain. That's what happened here." Massachusetts Democrat Stephen Lynch
This is heartbreaking: yesterday I was listening to the Ron Reagan show on Air America, and a woman called in named "Nadia" who lost her 19-year-old son in an industrial accident. Even though he was covered by AIG in an insurance policy with his company, AIG would not pay out. The grieving family was given the run-around and forced to go to court to sue AIG. The insurance giant still has not paid anything on the claim. They "claim" they have no money, or some such nonsense. I am not exactly sure of all the details, but you could hear the heartache in her voice. To have lost a son, and then to hear that AIG is paying out bonuses to buddies, swindlers and fellow partners in crime, is simply criminal.
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The Real AIG Scandal: It's not the bonuses. It's that AIG's counterparties are getting paid back in full. By Eliot Spitzer
Everybody is rushing to condemn AIG's bonuses, but this simple scandal is obscuring the real disgrace at the insurance giant: Why are AIG's counterparties getting paid back in full, to the tune of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars?
...The appearance that this was all an inside job is overwhelming. AIG was nothing more than a conduit for huge capital flows to the same old suspects, with no reason or explanation.
It all appears, once again, to be the same insiders protecting themselves against sharing the pain and risk of their own bad adventure.
The payments to AIG's counterparties are justified with an appeal to the sanctity of contract. If AIG's contracts turned out to be shaky, the theory goes, then the whole edifice of the financial system would collapse.
What is the deeper relationship between Goldman and AIG? Didn't they almost merge a few years ago but did not because Goldman couldn't get its arms around the black box that is AIG? If that is true, why should Goldman get bailed out? After all, they should have known as well as anybody that a big part of AIG's business model was not to pay on insurance it had issued.
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Arianna Huffington: A Disturbing D.C. Whodunit [Updated]
The mystery over who killed a provision in the stimulus package that would have curtailed bonuses at bailed out companies is a disturbing D.C. whodunit. But even more disturbing is what it reveals about how our government is run. "It is the ultimate indictment of what Washington has become," Sen. Ron Wyden, co-sponsor of the eliminated provision told me. "It's a place where, again and again, the public interest is deep-sixed without any fingerprints." Wyden has no idea who killed the provision. And, so far, no one in the administration of a president who promised that transparency would be a "touchstone" of his presidency has demanded that whoever is responsible own up to it. We deserve better.
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Michael Hudson of Counterpunch says: Let’s go after the REAL money given to AIG – the $183 billion! I realize that this has already been paid out, and we can’t get it back from the counterparties who knew that Alan Greenspan and George Bush and Hank Paulson were steering the U.S. economy off a real estate cliff, a derivatives cliff and a balance-of-payments cliff all wrapped up into one by betting against collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and insuring these casino bets with AIG. That money has been siphoned off from the Treasury fair and square, by putting their own proxies in the key government slots, the better to serve them.
So let’s go after them altogether. Sen. Schumer said to the AIG bonus recipients that the I.R.S. can go after them and get the money back one way or another. And it can indeed go after the $183-billion bailout recipients. All it has to do is re-instate the estate tax and raise the marginal income and wealth-tax rates to the (already reduced) Clinton-era levels.
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!! You are SO lucky!
AIG OUTRAGE UPDATE!NY Attorney General Cuomo Reveals 73 Individuals Got Multi-Million-Dollar Bonuses... Top Recipient Got $6.4 Million....
Undercuts AIG Claim On Retention Payments: Numerous Bonus Recipients No Longer Work At The Firm ...
MORE AIG FALLOUT: CNBC's Santelli Downplays AIG Outrage, Asks Public To Show Some Perspective: "$165 Million Is Like Worrying About 16.5 Cents While $165 Maybe Necessitates A Little More Outrage"... Sen. Reid: Congress Intends To Retrieve Stimulus Money From AIG... Geithner Under Fire Over AIG Scandal: Sen. Shelby Charges Treasury Secretary Is "Out Of The Loop"... Security Ramped Up After Death Threats: Armed Guards Posted Outside AIG Offices... Some Senior Managers Submit Resignations... AIG BIG NEWS PAGE at Huffington Post
MORE AIG FALLOUT: CNBC's Santelli Downplays AIG Outrage, Asks Public To Show Some Perspective: "$165 Million Is Like Worrying About 16.5 Cents While $165 Maybe Necessitates A Little More Outrage"... Sen. Reid: Congress Intends To Retrieve Stimulus Money From AIG... Geithner Under Fire Over AIG Scandal: Sen. Shelby Charges Treasury Secretary Is "Out Of The Loop"... Security Ramped Up After Death Threats: Armed Guards Posted Outside AIG Offices... Some Senior Managers Submit Resignations... AIG BIG NEWS PAGE at Huffington Post
Who is Saint Patrick?
Saint Patrick was a missionary who lived in Ireland. He died around March 17, 493.
When he was 16 years old, Saint Patrick was captured and made a slave.
He was a slave for six years.
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When he was 16 years old, Saint Patrick was captured and made a slave.
He was a slave for six years.
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Arianna Huffington: What If Jon Stewart, Instead of John King, Interviewed Dick Cheney
As I watched John King interview Dick Cheney on Sunday, Jon Stewart kept popping into my head. Each time King let Cheney get away with revisionist history, I kept thinking how different things would have been had Stewart been asking the questions. A low point came when King brought out some data to refute Cheney's spin, then undercut the impact of the hard, cold facts that he was quoting by using mealy-mouthed qualifiers like "There are people who would say..." and "and they have some numbers to back up their case." Facts are not some numbers that belong to some people being trotted to make their case. They are empirical evidence. I can imagine King asking a flat-earther: "Some people say the earth is round. And they have some pictures taken from outer space to back up their case. What would you say to them?" More at Huffington Post
Happy Saint Padraig's Day to you all!
ReplyDeleteAnybody read Senator Charles Grassley's comments? He makes a good point about accepting responsibility for your actions. I think AIG is about to become the poster child for corruption in the banking industry.
ReplyDeleteThanks Frank!
ReplyDeleteYou're right - maybe this outrage at the corruption will bring both sides together (left and right)
Lydia,
ReplyDeleteI hope so too. I read a column in the New York Times today in which the columnist actually defended the actions of AIG on the grounds that these monies are due to these people legally. He also went on to state that the sanctity of contracts should not be abrogated by the government. I think the worst argument he made was that these thieves should be encouraged to stay where they are because they are the only ones that can "defuse the bombs" as it were. Interestingly, there seemed to be no mention of ethics or morality. Just what was legal.
Yeah, this is what the corporatists (right wing bunch that was in power the last 8 years) are so frightened of. They don't want government interference if it takes away their "elitist" thievery and huge corporate tax cuts that DO NOT create jobs or wealth for average Americans. They do not reinvest in America, they get slave labor in third world countries. Look at Nike and everything made in China. Those workers don't get more than a few dollars a day (or less) and no health insurance or labor standards.
ReplyDeleteBack when Jack Welch ran GE he bragged that he could get workers in India and Pakistan for 50 cents a day, so he outsourced his labor force.
Profit margin is all that matters. Cutting costs with no conscience.
Sure tax cuts create "jobs" for the CEOs!! Bonuses that need creative accountants.
What boggles my mind is that this kind of company AIG doesn't produce anything. They are a bunch of paper-shovers.
They need the cash to cover the insured, right?
Why is everybody praising Grassley?
ReplyDeleteHave we all forgotten who itt was that constantly pushed to deregulate the financials? Grassley and his ilk are every bit as guilty as any AIG executive is. If Grassley really means what he says, it's time for him to go sword shopping.
Insurance, especially the healthcare variety, is an extortion racket that has gotten so far away from its original purpose that it is high time to bring down some hammers. If ever there was a sector that was screaming for regulation, insurance is.
ReplyDeleteBlogger Frank Frey said...
ReplyDeleteLydia,
I hope so too. I read a column in the New York Times today in which the columnist actually defended the actions of AIG on the grounds that these monies are due to these people legally. He also went on to state that the sanctity of contracts should not be abrogated by the government. I think the worst argument he made was that these thieves should be encouraged to stay where they are because they are the only ones that can "defuse the bombs" as it were. Interestingly, there seemed to be no mention of ethics or morality. Just what was legal."
Isnt it "INTERESTING" that the flaming flying monkey fascists/repuggie hippocrites babble out of one side of their mouths about the "sanctity of contracts" when referring to the fatcat Wall Street elite looting HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of tax payer money from the till and baselessly REWARDING THEIR OWN FAILURE AND INCOMPETENCE while babbling the EXACT OPPOSITE out of the otherside of their mouths when they blather that the auto companies should be FORCED into bankruptcy so THEIR contracts can be voided.
Guess contracts for the working class arent as "sacred and sanctified" as those of the Wall Street Elite............why does the hippocritical Right Wing HATE the working class and HATE welfare that helps the poor and working class but absolutely LOVES Welfare for the corporate elite.........welfare for billionaires and millionaires is A-OK with the Wrong Wing but Welfare for the poor and working class is heinous "Socialism"
Blogger Lydia Cornell said...
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is what the corporatists (right wing bunch that was in power the last 8 years) are so frightened of. They don't want government interference if it takes away their "elitist" thievery and huge corporate tax cuts that DO NOT create jobs or wealth for average Americans. They do not reinvest in America, they get slave labor in third world countries. Look at Nike and everything made in China. Those workers don't get more than a few dollars a day (or less) and no health insurance or labor standards.
Back when Jack Welch ran GE he bragged that he could get workers in India and Pakistan for 50 cents a day, so he outsourced his labor force.
Profit margin is all that matters. Cutting costs with no conscience.
Sure tax cuts create "jobs" for the CEOs!! Bonuses that need creative accountants.
What boggles my mind is that this kind of company AIG doesn't produce anything. They are a bunch of paper-shovers.
They need the cash to cover the insured, right?"
I couldnt have said things better Lydia, Tax cuts are BS that dont created jobs and do VERY LITTLE to stimulate the economy particularly Tax cuts for the ultra wealthy..........the outsourcing of good paying jobs is what ruined our economy.
Like I said before the Era of "consumerism" is OVER FOREVER.
I was against the bailout from day one back in September I said without STRONG regulation and oversite AND help for the working class/homeowners it was doomed to fail and good money would be thrown down the drain.
I would be fine with letting AIG and the banks fail and Nationalizing a NEW banking system without the Federal Reserve........that said I ALSO think a plan like Bart suggested where a completely seperate and distinct account could be set up ONLY for loaning that could ONLY be accessed by the banks to make loans..........but bottom line the banks and AIG should NEVER have actually gotten access or possession of ANY of this capital it should ONLY have been for loans.
JFK Tried to kill the Federal Reserve and their economic poison, make big oil pay their FAIR SHARE of taxes and end the Vietnam War and the corrupt gravy train of corruption that the war provided for the military industrial complex and he got a bullet to the head.
Paper shovers/finance based economies that no longer make aNYTHING and have a declining middle class are a GLARING sign of economic, military, and standard of living declines and have been throughout history for thousands of years.
While Bart is ABSOLUTELY right that we NEED to get lending going to stop the decline and get the economy going again the bottom line is even if credit does get unfrozen and people get access to credit for big ticket items our economy will STILL contract by 30% because at least 30% will no longer be credit worthy and have access to the credit that has fueled their spending............unemployment has doubled and many who have not yet lost their jobs will be cutting back on spending out of fear of losing their jobs.........the vicious circle has started and credit has tightened due to jacked up interest rates, reduced lines of credit and being flat out cut off from credit.
and that 30% contraction is an optomistic estimate if MORE jobs are lost and credit REMAINS frozen for the credit worthy the contraction could be MUCH more substantial
Blogger Jolly Roger said...
ReplyDeleteWhy is everybody praising Grassley?
Have we all forgotten who itt was that constantly pushed to deregulate the financials? Grassley and his ilk are every bit as guilty as any AIG executive is. If Grassley really means what he says, it's time for him to go sword shopping."
I think the repugs are so desperate that they are throwing shit EVERYWHERE and hoping something sticks their trying to oppose Obama's recovery plan hoping for an economic DEpression and failure isnt helping their popularity so some of the rats are testing the waters for populism to try to get votes and cling to power in 2010 and beyond............Guess some of the "smarter" IDIOTS are starting to realizing being the party of "NO" and Rush Limpballs wont help their electability any.
MIke said:
ReplyDeleteGuess contracts for the working class arent as "sacred and sanctified" as those of the Wall Street Elite............why does the hippocritical Right Wing HATE the working class and HATE welfare that helps the poor and working class but absolutely LOVES Welfare for the corporate elite.........welfare for billionaires and millionaires is A-OK with the Wrong Wing but Welfare for the poor and working class is heinous "Socialism"
We need to keep repeating this so the Supreme idiots hear it.
I couldnt have said things better Lydia, Tax cuts are BS that dont created jobs and do VERY LITTLE to stimulate the economy particularly Tax cuts for the ultra wealthy..........the outsourcing of good paying jobs is what ruined our economy.
ReplyDeleteAnd what kind of tax cuts spurred outsourcing along?
In 2003, generous tax breaks were written into the code for foreign earned profits. At THE SAME TIME, corporations were allowed to write off the costs of shutting down an American facility and moving it overseas.
Who on Earth thought this was good policy, and why to the wingtards continue to defend it in the name of "free" trade? There is nothing "free" about this-you and I pay corporations GENEROUSLY for moving their operations overseas.
Top of the mornin to ya....and keep your hands off mee lucky charms.
ReplyDeleteWell...if it isn't himself:-) Did you have a good Saint Patrick's Day? What do you think of the new definition of AIG?
ReplyDeleteArrogance
Incompetence
Greed.
I'd cite the name of the person who said it but it escapes me now.
Here is a little about the past of Edward Liddy who is trying to defend paying out the hundreds of millions in bonuses to people who bankrupted AIG;
ReplyDeleteMuch Needed: A Strong Dose Of Populist Outrage
I can't understand why a big Republican donor-- obviously a crook-- like Liddy was put in charge of a company the government basically owns. And it isn't just because he was a maxed-out McCain donor, as well as a contributor to the RNC, that should disqualify him from employment.
He was the chairman of Allstate when they were cheating Hurricane Katrina victims out of their insurance coverage. Before that Liddy was the CFO at a pharmaceutical company where Don Rumsfeld was the CEO.
Together they axed most of the employees in order to make it an attractive property for Monsanto, which bought it in 1985 making Rumsfeld and Liddy immensely wealthy (although neither had contributed anything to the value of the company aside from firing 60% of the employees who had built it up.)
He is an one man act in disaster capitalism.
Frank Frey said...
ReplyDeleteWell...if it isn't himself:-)
Hey look. The moderate republican ex Viet Nam vet who's in his 60's (yet maintains an unusually youthful vocabulary)and is "concerned" for us all.
How's the concern treating you this morning slick?
And keep your hands off mee lucky charms.
ReplyDeleteThey're magically delicious.
ReplyDeleteThis is the most riveting show I've seen in history (I was not paying that much attention during Watergate.
ReplyDeleteGrilling AIG CEO Liddy - one Congressman said, "This is like being on a sinking ship and you guys reserved the lifeboats only for the CEOs! This is criminal, malfeasance... You had a fiduciaty responsibility...
And this one: Liddy == when you were head of ALLSTATE, you didn't pay insurers on their contracts == you often refused to pay and forced average American citizens to have no other recourse but to sue you in court.
Why couldn't you have allowed these bonus-receivers to sue you?
And this shocker: The Federal Reserve (Bernake) knew about these bonuses and sat in on all the meetings.
But Tim Geithner did not know. There was NO TRANSPARENCY.
The Federal Reserve chose not to tell the Treasury.
Not so bad, Bartlebee. I'm still alive.
ReplyDeleteAs for your Lucky Charms, you are welcome to them and all of their magical deliciousness.;-)
Typical neo-con evasion taktiks. Bernanke keeps Geithner in the dark about AIG and ambitious neo-cons like Connie Mack of Florida then call for Geithner's resignation to make themselves look good.
ReplyDeleteFunny, they don't seem to want to look into all the secret money that former Treasury Secretary Wolfson was busy handing out last September.
This whole mess is a perfect result of the convergence of two anti-American philosophies. Milton Friedman's neo-liberalism and Leo Strauss' neo-conservatism. Add a heapin' helpin' of good old Calvinistic predestination and Darbyite millenialism for the spiritual aspect and we have ourselves a very toxic stew.
ReplyDeleteNow, all we have to do is figure out how to clean out the kettle.
It’s bait and switch time again.
ReplyDeleteMar 18th, 2009
The outrage over the AIG bonus is probably justified, I am not going to argue that one.
However it is interesting that RIGHT after the release of the names of the Wall Street and big money fat cat banks who got BILLIONS from the US Government bailout of AIG, the facts that individuals working in AIG got bonuses suddenly got exposure.
For some strange reason the right wing Wurlitzer and complaint MSM starts screeching 24-7 about the millions in bonuses with out ever mentioning the BILLIONS that corporate whores have slunk off with. Interesting how the corporate owned right wing leaning MSM is focused on the millions while the Billions the richest greediest among us received, which was JUST revealed, is silently ignored.
Interesting how that works isn’t it?
Here are the latest list of corporate welfare recipients, compliments of the AIG bailout Paulson and Bernanke set up.
$12.9B Goldman Sachs
$12.0B Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
$5.2B Bank of America
$6.8B Merrill Lynch
$11.9B Societe Generale
$11.8B Deutsche Bank
$8.5B Barclays
$5.0B UBS
$4.9B BNP Paribas
$3.5B HSBC Bank
$3.3B Calyon
$2.3B Citigroup
$2.2B Dresdner Kleinwort
$1.6B JPMorgan/Morgman Stanley
$0.4B JPMorgan
$1.2B Morgan Stanley
$1.5B Wachovia
$1.5B ING
$1.1B Bank of Montreal
$1.0B Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank
$0.8B Rabobank
$0.7B Royal Bank of Scotland
$0.7B DZ Bank
$0.5B KFW
$0.3B Banco Santander
$0.4B Dresdner Bank AG
$0.4B Credit Suisse
$0.2B Citidel
Which means the apologists for corporate greed in the corporate owned right leaning MSM, are setting up individuals for populist public outrage to hide the corporate welfare handouts to banks and Wall Street, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke set up back in September approved by George W Bush.
Typical right wing bait and switch tactic to cover their tracks.
PS:if you are wondering what the "Citidel" is;
Chicago-Based Hedge Fund Citadel Got $200M in funds from AIG from their federal bailout.
Nice way to camouflage hand outs to fat cats like Citidel, by using the compliant corporate owned right leaning MSM to push the daily talking points.
To put things in perspective;
ReplyDeleteThe bonuses in total were: $167,000,000
The amount Bank of America-Merrill Lynch got just from the AIG bailout total was:24,000,000,000,
BTW that is NOT counting what they got from other bailouts.
Interesting, the real criminals slink off, while they leave the underlings taking the heat thru the very compliant corporate owned right leaning MSM ............
I think its important to point out that the DOW is up for the SEVENTH straight day.
ReplyDelete7 days of upward growth is a sign that the Presidents policies ARE working, and in spite of the naysayers we are seeing that STIMULUS DOES WORK.
President Obama is defying the odds, the critics and the republican saboteurs and doing what he said he'd do by using STIMULUS injections and federal oversight, to drive the economy forward and turn us around from the TRAIN WRECK left by Bush.
It's quite stimulating.
ReplyDelete:|
Now get your hands off mee Lucky Charms.
BTW President Obama is going to Orange county California and holding an OPEN townhall meeting.
ReplyDeleteOrange county is an affluent and politically conservative region.
Orange County has long been known as a Republican stronghold and has consistently sent Republican representatives to the state and federal legislatures. Orange County has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 landslide re-election for a second term.
Home to Crystal Cathedral, home to Reverend Robert H. Schuller Saddleback Church, home to Rick Warren and Calvary Chapel.
It would be like George W Bush going to Vermont and holding an OPEN townhall meeting, which he never did.
Change we can believe in.
Ummm Eric, er I mean Voltron;
ReplyDeleteObama Nixes Plan to Charge Veterans For Service-Related Health Care
The President has consistently stated that he is committed to working with veterans on the details of the 2010 VA Budget Proposal. The President demonstrated his deep commitment to veterans by proposing the largest increase in the VA budget in 30 years and calling VSO and MSO leaders into the White House for an unprecedented meeting to discuss various aspects of the budget proposal. In considering the third party billing issue, the administration was seeking to maximize the resources available for veterans; however, the President listened to concerns raised by the VSOs that this might, under certain circumstances, affect veterans and their families' ability to access health care. Therefore, the President has instructed that its consideration be dropped. The President wants to continue a constructive partnership with the VSOs and MSOs and is grateful to those VSOs and MSOs who have worked in good faith with him on the budget proposal.
Seems he didn't do it did he volty?
Seems your glee was misplaced again.
Seems like the President is keeping a much higher percentage of his campaign promises than any President I've seen.
ReplyDeleteMost President's make promises on the campaign trail that they end up not keeping for one reason or another.
But President Obama's doing pretty much what he said he would. Seems like he's a man of his word.
Interesting CNN and MSNBC are carrying Obama's townhall live, fake news lead by Roger Ailes, media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, not so much.
ReplyDeleteTypical reich wing noise machine ignoring real news.
ReplyDeleteYea, and they're always after mee lucky charms.
ReplyDeleteSt Sarah just read the latest poll which has Obama kicking her sorry ass 55 to 35 which translates to about 425-450 electoral votes for Obama ......
ReplyDeleteWell, it seems as if Senator Christopher Dodd(D-Conn.) seems to be having problems with remembering who it was exactly that pressured him and his committee into modifying some of the oversight provisions so that AIG employees could get those lovely bonuses. Oh...really?
ReplyDeleteCould this memory lapse have anything to do with the fact that Senator Dodd is the number one recipient of AIG employees campaign donations?
There have been calls for Liddy to step down, for Geithner to step down so maybe it is time for Senator Dodd to step down as Chairman of the Senate Finance and Banking Committee. At least until his memory improves.
God bless President Barak Obama. You're right, Bartlebee, it is working.
Frank try reading this;
ReplyDeleteTreasury Attempts to “Blame Dodd” for AIG Bonuses
Is There an Antidote to the Republican Amnesia?
ReplyDeleteYes the truth.
BTW just one month ago the people screeching the loudest about the EVIL bonuses were screeching about how Obama ET Al were EVIL socialists for wanting to LIMIT executive compensation for exactly the same actions they condemn the bonuses for.
ReplyDeleteClif,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up. Very interesting reading.
I withdraw my statement that Senator Dodd step down from his committee chairmanship.
Geithner needs to go no matter what and he can take Summers with him.
I was NEVER a big fan of Geithner OR Summers either Frank............I was disapointed Obama picked some of the very corporatists that got us into this mess with their reckless deregulation sure this mess is 90% the fault of Bush and the repugs but Summers and Geithner were fellow travelors with the repugs preaching cronny capitalism and reckless deregulation and debt fueled speculation.
ReplyDeleteObama made a mistake by allowing Rubin to advise him since Summers was his underling, and Geitner is Summer's underling.
ReplyDeleteI just finished watching Juan Cole on Stephen Colbert's show, and he did quite well.
ReplyDeleteHe actually managed to stump Colbert at one point, which is not an easy thing to do.
Just like I said when these clowns got appointed I NEVER liked Geithner or Summers it was a HUGE mistake to appoint some of the guys who were so dead wrong they helped to get us in the position we are in now.........Geithner and Summers were fellow travelers with the repugs as far as i'm concerned.
ReplyDeleteOn the whole, I support the president and his efforts. The whole Geithner/Summers axis is one of only two areas where I don't. The other one is the keeping of the rendition policy.
ReplyDeleteAside from these two things, I think we got winner. I'm glad I voted for him and he will continue to have my support.
I AGREE Frank!
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that a lot of folks are referring to Geithner and Summers as corporatists because interestingly enough corporatism was/is one of the key components of facism.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, I'll see you all tomorrow.
BTW Eliot Spitzer seems to agree with me;
ReplyDeleteThe Real AIG Scandal
It seems we weren’t the only ones who noticed the misdirection play here.
Stunning. Please read the updates on the blog.
ReplyDeleteThis is chilling - and it's not just Elliot Spitzer saying it.
Read about the sad phone call I heard on Ronald Reagan's show on Air America.
ReplyDeleteThen this:
What is the deeper relationship between Goldman and AIG? Didn't they almost merge a few years ago but did not because Goldman couldn't get its arms around the black box that is AIG? If that is true, why should Goldman get bailed out? After all, they should have known as well as anybody that a big part of AIG's business model was not to pay on insurance it had issued.
According to an AP story, at least 13 of the firms receiving TARP money owe hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes! What really makes it bad is that these firms had to sign an agreement with the Federal Government part of which stated that they didn't owe any back taxes. And guess what? The Treasury Department didn't bother to release that information.
ReplyDeleteSanctity of contracts my butt!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen does he go to jail?
ReplyDelete§ 333. Mutilation of national bank obligations.
Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
The act was seen on a nationally syndicated cable television entertainment show, about the stock market, so when does he go to jail?
BTW
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary to the Iraqi War,
it is a whole six years old today.
Cake walk MY frickin' arse
President Bush’s memoir will tentatively be called “Decision Points” and is scheduled for a 2010 release by Crown. “Bush will concentrate on about a dozen personal and presidential choices, from giving up drinking to picking Dick Cheney as his vice president to sending troops to Iraq.” He will also write about “his religious faith and his highly criticized response to Hurricane Katrina.”
ReplyDeleteIn other words a work of fiction.
Clif,
ReplyDeleteYes but what kind of fiction? Fantasy,Horror, or Techno-Thriller?
My money's on Fantasy-Horror.
Well it rests on whether they publish in the original Crayola scribble style or they have Laura edit it extensively for spelling punctuation and grammar.
ReplyDeleteIn the first case
unintelligible children's horror,
The second
X-Files style unbelievable fiction with a side of super ego.
New post is up, it's more on the inspirational side.
ReplyDeleteBut we can bitch about AIG and all the crooks in the new thread please
I am experimenting with colors and formatting so this will change soon.