AIG was responsible for the banks January and February profitability

Zero Hedge blog ^ | March 29, 2009 | Tyler Durden

[oldtimer2]

I was surfing some financial blogs and came across this. I am not an expert but is this illegal or just immoral? Has anyone seen any thing about this. In other words is it true. I wish that someone who knows more than I do would investigate this. I have a very uneasy feeling that we have been scammed more than we realise.

[beebuster2000]

bump for ;ater

[pnh102]

This is silly. How could banks which took billions in welfare from taxpayers not be profitable?

[2001convSVT]

All is fair in love and war, and I guess now in banking when it comes to socialism.

[WellyP]

I just forwarded this to some people who “should know”! They will not be at all happy!

[rsobin]

This whole mess is becoming more clear and more depressing daily. If you think CDO’s and how they were rated and sold is scandalous check out the synthetic CDO’s, check out how these banks manipulated oil prices. Consider how the gubment allowed this ,cheering them on. Check out who were the big contributors for reelections. Check out how all the big news organizations rooted for the banks. Who was watching our backs. Where was the investigative reporting? Where were you Cavuto? Where were you Kudlow? We’re getting close to the time for all good men to come to the aid of their nation.

[oldtimer2]

Be careful how you express that sentiment. The govt could interpet such a remark as calling for an insurection if it is not phrased right.

Maybe I am being paranoid.

[peeps36]

So AIG is being used to funnel tax payer money to other banks. They are selling investments for huge losses because they know the government will back them up. The buyers then sell the investments for huge profits while the tax payer gets screwed. This must be what capitalism looks like under Obomba rule.

[rsobin]

Good men are good people and can only do good things for their country.

[rsobin]

Yea and I wonder if they are going to contribute to any political campaigns this year? Or maybe their counter parties will for them. Does anyone know if TARP recipients can donate to campaigns?

[Defiant]

If this is true, it is scary that they think we are that stupid, and it is scary that the markets went up in response to claims of profits.

[Inappropriate Laughter]

Thank you for posting this oldtimer2, I was wondering how AIG-FP was unwinding their portfolio, and suspected that it was not on the best of terms; per AIG's 2008 10-K AIG-FP lost $41 BILLION dollars. I will be fun to read the Q1 10-Q. The 400 plus AIG-FP employees have been paid about $500,000 each (on average) in bonuses, which led to the recent hue and cry, and attempts to tax away these bonuses.

I've been wondering whether or not is was really necessary to pay these guys (the guys who caused AIG's September liquidity crisis) this much money to unwind the book and I wondered how good a job they were doing; and the answer seems to be, not a very good job.

In the AIG bonus scandal threads most posters here seemed think that these guys were being unfairly picked upon, that they were Ayn Rand heroes, (Ayn Rand heroes who made 66% of their political contributions to Democrats in the last election cycle) that they had already "saved" the taxpayer some $1.1 trillion, that no one else could do the job that these "talented" employees were doing. If you are willing to give away the store, anyone can unwind the book.

[oldtimer2]

I don’t know enough about these financial affairs but I know that if you only read the msm, everything looks not too bad. If however you follow the obscure journals and blogs, it looks very bad. I am becoming very frightened for our country.

[kidd]

You need to check out the time frame.
The execs were paid for work performed in 2008.

This article is about selling the farm in January and Februaray of 2009.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[DuncanWaring]

Karl Denninger/Market Ticker comments on this:

http://market-ticker.org/archives/912-Was-This-An-Outright-Scam-AIG-Again.html

[Gritty]

If this is all true, then these folks at AIG, Geithner, and his boss ought to all be in jail for fraud and theft of taxpayer money.

They used to hang people for robbing banks. These thieves are stealing the entire banking system and our money with it!

[Travis McGee]

Great cartoons I saw today:

[Travis McGee]

See 18.

[oldtimer2]

Off topic:
After John D. Macdonald had stopped writing, I heard a rumor that he had a final book written and in his files.
Supposedly it would have tied up all strings about Trav McGee and would include black in the title.
Had you heard this and was it true?