Comments on: AIG: Putting the Racketeering Back in the Insurance Racket

By: KayInMaine

KayInMaine — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:27:03 +0000

It’s not George Bush’s fault for not clamping down on this sort of thing after Enron collapsed, okay? It’s President Obama’s fault. /s

By: JamesJoyce

JamesJoyce — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:42:03 +0000

Corporate aristocrats involved in corporate crime has bamboozled America on a massive scale. The liberties lost by so many Americans resulting from theses criminal actions was forewarned.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:11:04 +0000

Downright weird that nobody’s started talking a CDS exchange up yet, nor outlawing naked CDSes.

I seem to remember somebody answering Congressional questions and mentioning that his firm has in fact set up a clearing house for them.

I think a lot of ideas about industry regulation, including outlawing naked CDSs, will be discussed in public over the next few months. I know it’s been discussed on blogs and probably has also been discussed by some in Congress in private after their public hearings.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:06:10 +0000

the $1.2 billion AIG set aside for bonuses, not just this $165 million. Why are we only talking about this now? Why wasn’t this stopped before?

Maybe it was written in granite during the Bush admin.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:04:15 +0000

Just the rumor last week that the stock uptick rule might be gone sent the market up.

… that the uptick rule might be REINSTATED sent the market up.

By: AitchD

AitchD — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:01:31 +0000

Anyone know how many persons are present in the room during exit interviews at the executive level?

Retention contracts, as such, sound like prenuptial and non-aggression pacts, designed to prevent a first strike, making ‘extortion’ impossible.

By: mracine

mracine — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:28:55 +0000

I see some folks beat me to the punch on this.

But there are a number of ways to ensure cooperation. And I bet Obama would enjoy giving the announcement.

By: Hmmm

Hmmm — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:27:42 +0000

Downright weird that nobody’s started talking a CDS exchange up yet, nor outlawing naked CDSes.

By: mracine

mracine — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:27:06 +0000

Watching Niall Ferguson’s PBS special on the financial crisis, he talked about how after the collapse of Enron, the traders and financial fanooglers were hired on Wall Street to come up new products there. We really need to stamp this sort of stuff out.

Barney Frank used to be my congressman - what I’m going to tell him is that there needs to be an investigation, and anyone who doesn’t cooperate fully is barred for life from any job in the financial industry. No US company with any licensing or regulatory oversight can be permitted to hire them, and overseas companies must divulge any listed employees to US regulatory boards to do business in the US.

The majority of people really do know when they are working for a crooked company (or a dirty division in an otherwise clean company). And they should worry more about it.

By: bobschacht

bobschacht — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:06:39 +0000

I don’t think this crisis will be resolved without a Federal ban on CDS & derivative transactions, like the “bank holiday” FDR declared in the Great Depression. Then, with the CDS lockdown, declare AIG insolvent and break it up. Then permit CDS & derivative transactions to resume in a heavily regulated environment.

Without that, all our money is being thrown into a black hole.

Bob in HI