Comments on: Why was Goldman invited to the AIG bailout party?

By: Thèse de Gerald Celente: La guerre comme « solution » à la dépression économique / IG

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:52:35 +0000

[...] président doit en trouver un autre prétexte, celui qui détournera notre attention de la Banque Goldman Sachs pour la diriger sur un ennemi à l´étranger. Celui qui doit porter la responsabilité de notre [...]

By: Gramercy Images News » Gramercy Images News for August 10, 2009

Gramercy Images News » Gramercy Images News for August 10, 2009 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:48:52 +0000

[...] Why Was Goldman Invited To The AIG Bailout Party? [...]

By: econocataclysm

econocataclysm — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:12:51 +0000

Oops, the full link to moonbattery’s attack article on me got lost, my fault. Here it is:

http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2009/08/a_call_from_the.html

By: econocataclysm

econocataclysm — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:07:54 +0000

I just got attacked by a conservative blog!!!

I can’t believe this… (well, I can actually):

http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2009/08/a...

All the bloggers themselves really did was quote me and call me crazy, the real insanity was left to the first person to comment, and check out the comments on that page BTW, these people are NUTS!!! Anyway, here’s what the guy (Air2air) said:

but AIG’s PsyOps labs have used TARP money (quotes me – ed)

Actually your side bailed out AIG and is behind TARP (his words -ed)

Uhhh, yeah… last time I checked, Paulson was the one who engineered TARP and he worked for Bush… And it happened back in September when Bush was still in office…

It seems the Republicans and their supporters aren’t even TRYING TO LOOK LIKE they are telling the truth anymore. You can see my response here:

http://www.econocataclysm.com/dr-william-black-explains-bush-era-regulatory-capture-video/

It includes a big, fat link to this article. Thanks for the writing, Matt. Keep it up! We’ll shut these people down eventually, we just have to keep hammering away at them. And everyone remember to support Ron Paul’s HR 1207 to audit the Fed!!!

By: The Econocataclysm » Blog Archive » Dr. William Black Explains Bush-Era Regulatory Capture: Video

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:34:19 +0000

[...] Hank Paulson was George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary. He organized the TARP and bailed out AIG… This is the essence of regulatory capture, it happened on Bush’s watch and due to Bush and the Republicans pushing a deregulation agenda through various means until there effectively was no regulation anymore. This lack of meaningful regulation of various Wall Street institutions led to massive, unsupportable bubbles in housing, energy, and various other commodities, ultimately resulting in 25 million unemployed Americans and, paradoxically, 100 million dollar bonuses on Wall Street to people who would have been wiped out if this had really been a free market. Wall Street has collectively enjoyed the benefits of Socialism while avoiding the risks of the Free Market, and they;ve done it on YOUR DIME. And it was all because of George W. Bush. Which brings me to… [...]

By: Will America Launch Another War to Help Economy? | MORTGAGES

Will America Launch Another War to Help Economy? | MORTGAGES — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:13:57 +0000

[...] Our new president needs to come up with an equivalent, one that will divert our attention away from Goldman Sachs and toward some overseas enemy who is somehow to be held responsible for our present [...]

By: It is Obamageddon

It is Obamageddon — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:48:29 +0000

By: Landanlius "TheTroof" Truefeld

Landanlius "TheTroof" Truefeld — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:29:00 +0000

@Serena
My point was that what I call “default-day” shouldn’t matter (let’s assume it’s the day after which all AIG payments came from the govt…err…the taxpayers). If GS has not taken $7.5b (per NYMagazine) from AIG before default-day, then would they have received $7.5b+$13b=$20.5b AFTER default-day? And if GS had received $20.5b BEFORE default-day, would we even be having this discussion? To me, the dollars are fungible (across time and across creditors), and so we should be discussing the TOTAL amount that GS received from AIG (and thus the taxpayers), not just the $13b after default-day. This $20.5b is the number CDS contracts. Were there other counter-party payments made from AIG to GS in the months and years leading up to default-day that the taxpayers ultimately paid? Part of GS’s revenues/profits are compensation for taking counter-party risk, and they should pay the penalty. There’s no free lunch in finance.

Nassim Taleb is right: “We have a very strange situation in which it’s the worst of capitalism and socialism, a situation in which profits were privatized and losses were socialized. We taxpayers have the worst.”

By: andygeiger

andygeiger — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:28:19 +0000

(http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/sidneys/rolling-stone-goldman-sachs-muckracker-wins-hillman-foundation-sidney-award)

There should also be an award for teaching the Fourth Estate how to grow a set.

By: Serena DiPitti

Serena DiPitti — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:04:55 +0000

First of all, what day do you consider “default day”?

Then, don’t you think a better question is how was Goldman the “only” shrewd/lucky counterparty to AIG’s unfortunate business decision to issue CDSs; and furthermore, if AIG was making so much money selling these things (as per Michael Lewis, in ““The Man Who Sank the World’s Economy”, published in last month’s Vanity Fair), then why didn’t they expand their marketplace to include all the Wall Street subprime mortgage securitizes?

Seriously, these guys are whores, and if they’ve got something to sell, and there’s money to be made, they’re not going to be too particular who they work with .. . are they?

Read this argument in light of my own predisposition to reject that AIG ever “SOLD” any such thing. I’m not denying they engaged in credit default swaps, but I believe they were negotiated market positions, rather than transactions bought or sold, and I suspect they were established in relation to municipal bond issuances; possibly corporate grade debt. I also believe they sold interest swaps, currency swaps, swaptions, equity and commodity swaps, as stated per their 10-K Annual Reports. But I do not believe they “sold” credit default swaps for mortgage backed securities issuances, and if they did, I would love to have someone explain to me how they priced the risk and established acceptable capitalization rates.

You need to realize that AIG owns United Guaranty, a private mortgage insurance company. If there’s anything AIG knows, its all about risk. The same can be said for United Guaranty, which would have decades’ worth of mortgage loan performance data informing their decision to insure, or not insure, any particular loan.

The loans that AIG was supposedly selling credit default swaps for were loans of such marginal quality that they couldn’t possibly obtain mortgage insurance to insure payment in case of default, because they loans seemed virtually certain to default.

So really, there could have been no question of whether the loan would default. Rather, the question would have been “when” it would default.