NEW YORK (Reuters) "“ Where, oh where, did AIG's bailout billions go? That question may reverberate even louder through the halls of government in the week ahead now that a partial list of beneficiaries has been published.
TheWallStreetJournal reported on Friday that about $50 billion of more than $173 billion that the U.S. government has poured into AmericanInternationalGroupInc since last fall has been paid to at least two dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions.
The newspaper reported that some of the banks paid by AIG since the insurer started getting taxpayer funds were: Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale, Calyon, Barclays Plc, Rabobank, Danske, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Bank of America, and Lloyds Banking Group.
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As part of its business, AIG insured counterparties on mortgage-backed securities and other assets. The collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market, which triggered a global financial crisis, left the insurer and some of its policy holders facing possible ruin as the value of assets declined.
U.S. regulators failed to recognize how much risk AIG was piling on in credit-default swaps, and by the time they understood, they had no choice but to pour in billions of public dollars, Kohn and other officials told the Senate panel. Senators were outraged by the lack of details about where the bailout money has gone. "That we find ourselves in this situation at all is ... quite frankly, sickening," said Senator Christopher Dodd, the Democrat who chairs the committee. "The lack of transparency and accountability in this process has been rather stunning."
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On Thursday, Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the banking committee, said: "The Fed and Treasury can be secretive for a while but not forever."
This is what happens with no regulations and oversite. The idea that people will do the right thing if the gov steps aside is pure idiocracy. We can only hope that regs and laws are put in place and enforced.
This is what happens when we don't let the corrupt companies fail and disappear. The government gets involved, dumps tons of money into the corruption, and then because the government is just as corupt doesn't give a rip about where my and your money is going.
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"The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency........... Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."
This is what happens with no regulations and oversite. The idea that people will do the right thing if the gov steps aside is pure idiocracy. We can only hope that regs and laws are put in place and enforced.
Remember who was in charge when all this was put in place, the Democrats.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
How AIG Spent The Bailout Funds
This is what happens with no regulations and oversite. The idea that people will do the right thing if the gov steps aside is pure idiocracy. We can only hope that regs and laws are put in place and enforced.
AIG needs to sink. Same for GM.
