Obama’s AIG timidity
I’ve been pretty amazed at how silent the Obama administration has been about Robert Benmosche’s antics since becoming the well-compensated CEO of American International Group–the defacto government...
View ArticleWhat did rating agencies know about AIG?
It’s time to start asking the big credit rating agencies just when they realized that American International Group might pose a systemic risk to the global financial system. And what, if anything, did...
View ArticleTime to junk AIG
The federal government’s $180 billion effort to prop up American International Group has worked, averting an even bigger financial catastrophe. Now it’s time for the Obama administration to oversee the...
View ArticleProfiting from the bailout
What is it with this belief that somehow the federal government’s role should be to profit from the bank bailout? I thought the purpose of the bailout was to save the financial system from collapse....
View ArticleAIG has debts that no honest man can pay
Here’s more evidence that it would be better for the federal government to order the break-up of AIG sooner rather than later. Former AIG chief executive and chairman Robert Willumstad, in a speech...
View ArticleDow 10,000 is a gas
Jack Healy’s story in The New York Times about the Dow getting closer and closer to the magical 10,000 mark is OK, but it contains few surprises. But I really was blown away by the chart that shows the...
View ArticleBarofsky audit a Fed, not Geithner, problem
Sure, Timothy Geithner led the negotiations with AIG counterparties when he headed the New York Fed last year, but TARP special inspector Neil Barofsky’s audit is damning where it really hurts the Fed....
View ArticleGrist for Goldman conspiracy theorists
From Yves over at NakedCapitalism: A former managing director at monolines Ambac and FGIC wonders why AIG was bailed out but the monolines weren't. (He admits to bias, so take this with a grain of...
View ArticleGeithner’s faulty apologia
Tim Geithner's appearance in front of Congress today was another embarrassment, perhaps more for the people's representatives than the Treasury Secretary. Still, Geithner offered a clumsy defense for...
View ArticleLunchtime Links 2-2
Homeownership rate falls to 2000 level (CR) At 67.2% it's still way overstated. Home "ownership" is a misnomer in cases when the owner has withdrawn mortgage equity or when the price of the home has...
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