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Obama's Ongoing War on Inspectors GeneralBy Ed Lasky A cloud of suspicion hangs over the data Barack Obama and his team have been presenting us regarding the purported success of their own programs. The figures presented regarding "jobs created and saved" have been contested. The new metric regarding jobs "saved" has been ridiculed as just a tactic to burnish the numbers. Analysts have looked at various expenditures and have shown in example after example that each job created is often temporary in nature, sometimes occurs overseas, and is often extremely expensive. The figures regarding ObamaCare -- be they the costliness...

Documents given to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission show Goldman made $2.9bn on proprietary trades from AIG's bailout cash Goldman Sachs collected nearly $3bn (£1.9bn) from bailed-out US insurer American International Group (AIG) as a payout on bets it placed on its own account – with the bulk coming directly from taxpayers after AIG's rescue. The revelation was made in the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) report into 2008's financial meltdown. According to the US government-sponsored FCIC, AIG's $182bn bailout was necessary because the insurer's collapse threatened "cascading losses and collapses" throughout the financial system. Goldman received $12.9bn of the...

AIG will convert outstanding preferred shares purchased by the US Treasury, into common stock. When the transaction is complete the Treasury will own 0.0 preferred shares and approximately 92% of AIG's common shares. "The company (AIG) said Wednesday that it expects Treasury will sell its shares of common stock over time, repaying the debt.

Attorneys for a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War say they have filed a petition to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a federal district judge ruled it is OK for the U.S. government to fund commercial enterprises that promote the indoctrination of Islamic law, or Shariah, in the United States. The decision came from Judge Lawrence Zatkoff, who changed his perspective on the issue and said just last week that he would dismiss a constitutional challenge brought by Kevin Murray against the U.S. government's bailout of AIG, the insurance giant. AIG used more than "$100 million...

Andrea Michell is discussing Sarah Palin (what a surprise) with Democrat David Bonier and Republican strategist Vin Weber, here's the video of Weber. ------- MITCHELL: "She had the choice of when to speak and the tone. and one has to wonder why doesn't she have a wider circling of advisers. i don't know any political strategist of a national campaign, republican or democrat who thinks that was a smart thing to do. VIN WEBER: "Well, we really don't know who advises her. She's quite isolated from what you might think of as the Republican establishment. No one is quite sure...

For the past two months, GAP has criticized the nomination of James Cole to be Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department (DOJ). We have argued that because Cole, who served as Independent Consultant at AIG during the critical time period from 2005 through 2009, missed clear signals of malfeasance, he is unsuited to serve as the second-in-command at the DOJ. Last week, after four senators requested Cole’s reports to DOJ about AIG, prior to deciding on his nomination, a DOJ spokeswoman defended Cole’s role at AIG, telling Main Justice that Critics who suggest that Mr. Cole was somehow too...

Treasury said Tuesday in its two-year retrospective on the Troubled Asset Relief Program that the net cost of TARP's AIG (AIG) bailout at current market prices is $5.1 billion. The cost of the AIG bailout has been subject of considerable head scratching in recent days, with TARP winding down and the terms of federal assistance to AIG changing for the umpteenth time....... After the proposed restructuring of AIG, TARP will hold 1.09 billion shares of AIG common stock, plus preferred equity interests in SPVs of approximately $22.3 billion, against a cost basis of $69.8 billion. Valuing the common equity at...

According to Richard Holbrooke, Richard Holbrooke is essentially this country's top diplomat -- Hillary Clinton is merely his "pupil. This despite the fact that Holbrooke has hit the trifecta of shady business dealings over the last few years: a member of AIG's board with more than $800,000 in compensation, a managing director at Lehman Brothers, and the recipient of a "Friends of Angelo" loan from Countrywide (that alone was enough to get Jim Johnson thrown under the Obama campaign bus). Now comes another revelation from the New York Times. Despite repeated denials, according to three sources, Holbrooke did offer former...

ABC News has learned that Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died. On Friday, Holbrooke was rushed to the hospital with a torn aorta. He went through more than 20 hours of surgery. Earlier this evening, speaking at the US State Department, President Obama sang Holbrooke's praises and called him "a tough son of a gun." Holbrooke, 69, was a former ambassador to the United Nations and served as chief negotiator at the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the war in Bosnia. The New Yorker's George Packer wrote a nice story about Holbrooke last year,...

In a major recession, some brainiacs decided they want to build a $150 million Noah's Ark Amusement Park in Kentucky. The effort is backed by Answers in Genesis, the group that sunk millions into a "creation" museum that highlights their distorted view of science with such things as men living with dinosaurs. Many Christians are asking, however, aren't there better things to spend this money on? "Hungry people, missionaries, new churches, charities, all should be higher on the list. This is embarassing," said one churchgoer. Another added, "How can we afford to waste this money while the government is busy...

Now we see why The Fed didn't want to tell the truth - it unearth this (among probably more) Gee, what part of Section 14 of The Federal Reserve Act authorized this? On March 2, 2009, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury announced a restructuring of the government's assistance to AIG. Specifically, the government's restructuring was designed to enhance the company's capital and liquidity in order to facilitate the orderly completion of the company's global divestiture program. As part of this restructuring, on December 1, 2009, the Federal Reserve completed transactions under which the FRBNY received preferred interests in two...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Insurance giant AIG is reporting a $2.4 billion loss for the third quarter, dragged down by hefty charges tied to selling off some assets. But American International Group Inc., which is 80 percent-owned by the U.S. government, remains confident in its core operations, which include its property and casualty and life and retirement services business. "AIG's continuing insurance operating results remain solid," President and CEO Robert H. Benmosche said in a statement. "Despite soft market conditions in the property casualty market and a low interest rate environment, these businesses have demonstrated their market leadership and are...

The special inspector general for TARP discusses how and why the program has failed to meet some of its stated goals. . . . . Q: There have been statements since your audit report on the decision to pay 100 percent for the toxic assets in Maiden Lane III to AIG’s counterparties that said that the government and Federal Reserve Bank officials did not have the authority to require less than 100 percent payment. Yet, as you point out, the same officials did not have the authority to compel banks to accept the capital injections, yet they pressured them to...

laughed when I started seeing stories about AIG paying back the bailout money it has received. I hope I’m wrong, but the math just does not work out. Also, in a fit of hubris, the AIG CEO stated there is no chance of a government loss on this deal. Conversely, I believe there is little or no chance we will get our money back. Let’s dig into the number just a bit courtesy of Barry Ritholtz and you can draw your own conclusion: AIG Repaying Uncle Sam? Not By a Long Shot (The Big Picture, Sept. 30, 2010, Barry Ritholtz)...

I was "fiddlin" with my computer files and came across the "TARP Song" video. I played it again and got a big belly laugh. What was interesting was remembering what the H-E-Double-L was happening and going on in January 2009. Now we are chanting "We will Remember in November!" Well, I remember the "TARP Song." Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGfQk9XXm24

Ken Ham and his "Answers in Genesis" have been long criticized for their attacks on Christians who don't agree with his Genesis interpretation, his misrepresentation of what those people believe and Ham/AiG's complete lack of anything resembling biblical scholarship. So now they attack the Assemblies of God churches (http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2010/09/08/a-sad-day-for-the-assemblies-of-god-denomination/) for not latching on to the uncritical AiG beliefs. Hopefully, the AoG are simply trying to work through the issues at a scholarly level (something AiG cannot seem to do) and won't follow the current trend of some Christians in accepting theistic evolution. It is the fault of people like Ken...

Introduction: Shariah Investments Shariah Banking also known as Islamic banking or Shariah Compliant finance is a powerful economic tool of Political Islam, disguised as a harmless religious method of investing for Muslims. Western investment firms like Citigroup, HSBC, Dow Jones, UBS, and AIG have created Islamic banks within their corporate structures, hiring Shariah Authorities or Imams to manage this new entity with full discretion. Their ultimate goal is to create a global Islamic nation (umma) wherein both Muslims and non-Muslims are under Islamic sovereignty. These Shariah “scholars” use all forms of Jihad (aggressive and stealth) to further their goal. Shariah...

With the ink of President Obama's signature on the Barney Frank-Chris Dodd financial reform bill barely dry, the next bank bailout already has begun. How can that be, you might ask? Weren't we promised that this "landmark" legislation would end bank bailouts? Weren't we promised that this legislation ushered in a new era of transparency on Wall Street? Could it be that the politicians lied to us? Say it ain't so - but it is. If this brings to mind the backdoor bailout of Wall Street banks by AIG, it should. At just these three big banks, the taxpayers are...

It is “financial jihad,” explained Yusuf Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s sharia compass — and the man Feisal Rauf, the brains behind the proposed Ground Zero mosque, admires as “the most well-known legal authority in the whole Muslim world today.” It was 2002 and Qaradawi, who endorses suicide bombing and the targeting of American personnel operating in Islamic countries, was giving a lecture on the need to use the international financial system to support Islamist goals — like Hamas’s war to destroy Israel. The financial jihad has now achieved its greatest coup so far: It has co-opted the U.S. government as...

Sometimes, the revolving door spins a little too quickly. James Cole, Obama’s recent nominee for Deputy Attorney General, has worked as an independent consultant at AIG for the past five years – the company at the center of Department of Justice investigations as recently as two months ago. His firm was paid $20 million to assist with AIG’s legal compliances in that investigation. If confirmed, Cole could potentially be responsible for deciding if and how future cases of fraud would be pressed against AIG. Just as alarming was the way he handled the now-closed case when he was working for...