Barney Frank: Fed's Role in AIG 'Troubling' (Still no investigation of the Banking Queen)

Yahoo ^ | 1/08/10 | Alison Vekshin and Peter Cook

[Libloather]

Frank: Fed's Role in AIG 'Troubling'
Fri Jan 8, 8:08 am ET
By Alison Vekshin and Peter Cook

(Bloomberg) -- Representative Barney Frank said the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's 2008 order to American International Group Inc. to suppress disclosures of bank payments is "troubling" and he supports hearings on the issue.

Frank retains confidence in Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who led the New York Fed at the time, he said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. The U.S. House last month passed legislation that would prevent the Fed from having the power to bail out companies such as AIG, he said.

**SNIP**

Bush Administration

"This was a previous administration and he was acting not independently but as part of the Bush administration approach," Frank said.

Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said he would seek a Finance Committee hearing on the bank rescue, including an examination of actions disclosed in the e-mails released by Issa that led to delays in disclosing the AIG payments.

"We should look hard at whether disclosure really would have caused even more severe hardship for the rest of the country, including a run on banks and the resulting fall-out," Grassley said in an e-mailed statement. Frank said he would support congressional hearings.

The New York Fed took over negotiations between AIG and the banks in November 2008 as losses on the swaps, or contracts tied to subprime home loans, threatened to swamp the insurer weeks after its taxpayer-funded rescue. The regulator decided Goldman Sachs and more than a dozen banks would be fully repaid for $62.1 billion of the contracts, prompting lawmakers to call the AIG rescue a "backdoor bailout" of financial firms.

[Libloather]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., left, whispers into the ear of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 11, 2009...

[Logical me]

Barney Frank a gay communists RAT and protected by the King Obama machine.

[jessduntno]

This old queen is the embodiment of everything wrong with American politics...with the joyful departure of Ded Kennedy (D-HELL) he assumes the tiara of most corrupt and loathsome Dem in the party...

[ronnie raygun]

We need to demand full disclosure, we need to demand a full investigation, and we need to prosecute ALL THESE CRIMINLAS to the fullest extent of the law. We have known tax cheats, swindlers, money launderers, scam artists, imbezlers and racketierests. RICO WHERE ARE YOU?

[Tawiskaro]

Enemies of the Republic collector's card #9:

[Jim Robinson]

Barney will be a very popular guy in (or out of) a jumpsuit.

[freekitty]

This is one guy that definately needs to be in jail.

[Nevadan]

re: “Representative Barney Frank said the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s 2008 order to American International Group Inc. to suppress disclosures of bank payments is “troubling” and he supports hearings on the issue”

The hypocracy of this guy is amazing. I’m stunned.

[Ben Hecks]

... including an examination of actions disclosed in the e-mails released by Issa that led to delays in disclosing the AIG payments.

While we're at it, why don't we take a look at how IndyMac bank failed, how George Soros came to be one of its new owners and why it cost the Fed $9 billion dollars.