Posted on 03/19/2009 4:07:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON – Obama administration special envoy Richard Holbooke was on the American International Group Inc. board of directors in early 2008 when the insurance company locked in the bonuses now stoking national outrage.
Holbrooke, a veteran diplomat who is now the administration's point man on Pakistan and Afghanistan, served on the board between 2001 and mid-2008. During that period, AIG undertook the aggressive investment strategies that led to a near-collapse and forced a multibillion-dollar federal bailout.
President Barack Obama has insisted his administration was not responsible for AIG's financial woes, and a White House spokesman said Thursday that Holbrooke was unaware of AIG's decision to award retention bonuses to key employees.
"Mr. Holbrooke had nothing to do with and knew nothing about the bonuses," spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Holbrooke is one mean, ARROGANT BUSTARD!!
I want to know who inserted the change in the stimulus bill that allowed the AIG bonuses. The Dems are covering for someone. My suspicion is that it’s Joe Biden. Do any of his family work for a financial institution that would pay such bonuses?
interesting to connect the dots ... ....... .. ... ...
Hopey Changemas!
I'm curious what exactly were the "aggressive investment strategies" they're talking about. Is that really the problem, or is it that with the mortgage debacle, everyone was going down?
A Freeper said that George Soros OWNS Societe General Bank in France that got BILLIONS from US TAXPAYERS thru AIG!
I've read elsewhere that it was Chris Dodd, on the advice of Geithner, who said that the bonuses were legal obligations.
I've also said on another post, that even if the bonuses are in awful taste, and the exemption clause wasn't in the law, taking them back is an ex-post-facto law, which should be unconstitutional. All of this would have been avoided if bankruptcy reorganization had occurred. The recapitalization of AIG with preferred and the continued funnelling of money through it is a constructive bankruptcy anyway, without the formal designation.
I don’t believe that BS about it being Dodd’s fault, or that BS about it being Geithner’s fault. They are just taking the blame to protect someone else.
Interesting — tried to check it out and got side-tracked on other info which is not hard considering it’s Soros. Just the type the dems would go for....
AIG/Goldman Sachs ... mox/nix.
New York, NY - September 26, 2008 — The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) today announced that Edward M. Liddy resigned as a member of its Board of Directors in light of his new role as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American International Group, Inc. His resignation was effective September 23, 2008. Mr. Liddy had been a director of Goldman Sachs since June 2003. During that time, he served as chairman of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and the Compensation Committee.
....By 8:30 p.m., in addition to the usual complement of ambassadors and diplomats, the living room is filled with an A-list New Yorkers might recognize. Super-agent Binky Urban is schmoozing with Time editor Walter Isaacson. Barbara Walters races in, apologizing for running late. Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen are on hand, having flown in from L.A. Steenburgen's mother knows (Gen. Wesley) Clark's mom back in Arkansas.
Dressed in a formal pin-striped suit, crisp white shirt, and red tie, Holbrooke still manages to look comfortably rumpled -- his unruly hair is the secret to this effect -- as he banters his way around the room. Introducing Clark to billionaire financier George Soros and Canadian press lord Conrad Black, Holbrooke teasingly calls the general, whose formal title is supreme Allied commander for Europe, "The Supreme," then launches into a hummed rendition of "Stop! In the Name of Love."....
Thanks Bokababe!
So many outrages when it comes to US policy towards the Balkans it’s hard to know when to act.
Nice find. Our country is infected with Goldmanites---they're like a STD that takes over the life of the infected. Read on.
GOLDMAN-SACHS-A-THON
After the market meltdown, many Goldman Sachs execs fled to the "safety" of the Federal Reserve and Dept of US Treasury........and are sucking up tax dollars as we type.
Tax cheat (and US Treasury Secy) Tim Geithner hired a Goldman Sachs lobbyist as his COS. ...even though Obama said his admin is off-limits to lobbyists.
Ex- Goldman Sachs head, Hank Paulson as Tresury Secy, stationed his G/S right hand man---Neel Kaskari---- to (cough) oversee $350B TARP payouts. We still do not know in which G/S rathole these two secreted the first $350B.
Paulson threatened US Senators with Martial Law if they did not vote him the bailout billions.
This depraved G/S Pig---Paulson---demanded the TARP be exempt from judicial, legislative, and regulatory review. $350B disappeared without a trace---and NO significant effect on the economy.
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US Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) said that Congress was not told the truth about the $700 billion bailout. "The American people don't know how much money Treasury Secy Henry Paulson has given away to anyone. IT COULD BE TO HIS FRIENDS. We don't know. There is no way of knowing.''
GOLDMAN SACHS SCREWS US AGAIN Secy Pavelson told Congress bailout billions would be used for one purpose then the foxy, wily Pavelson changes horses in midstream and decides to use the billions for something else.
Typical G/S chicanery.
The heck with Congress enacting the bailout law for one use. Pavelson personally decides he and the G/S guys will use it for "something else."
As US citizens line up at soup kitchens and sell apples on street corners, Pavelson, Kashkari, and the G/S frat boys are cashing in bigtime......numbered offshore bank accounts, "parking" bailout billions at Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street entities; wire-transfers going 24/7.
The late economist John Kenneth Galbraith blamed Goldman Sachs policies for causing the Great Depression of '29. In his book, The Great Crash, 1929, Galbraith, a key figure in JFK's admin, an entire chapter titled “In Goldman, Sachs, We Trust,” details the “large-scale corporate thimblerigging” that Goldman and other Wall Streeters practiced in the 1920s.
G/S frat boys at the highest levels of govt are now pulling the levers of power. Watching them operate, we know Goldman types promote their own interests relentlessly...........the rest of us be damned.
G/S insiders are pocketing as fast as they can----making motions to bail out the crooks who contributed to the economy's meltdown (that is part of their exercise in greed).
Good AT piece on 2/08 about al SOROS’ failed attempt to take down the US economy to help elect JFKerry and warning about what he may try to do in 08. http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/02/george_soros_and_the_alchemy_o.html
bttt
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