Watch AIG's payouts, not the bonuses, Spitzer says

[firedupdem]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/19/aig.spitzer/index.html

CNN) -- Outrage over bailed-out insurance giant American International Group's million-dollar bonuses may grab headlines, but its payouts on complicated financial instruments deserve closer examination, ex-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Thursday.

snip

AIG is now being kept afloat by U.S. taxpayers, and Spitzer said its woes stem from financial practices he first investigated as New York's attorney general.

"Back then I said to people, 'AIG is the center of the web.' The financial tentacles of this company stretched to every major investment bank," he said.

Virtually all" of the $80 billion-plus in the initial AIG bailout went to the company's counterparties, including nearly $13 billion to investment bank Goldman Sachs alone, Spitzer said.

"Why did that happen? What questions were asked? Why did we need to pay 100 cents on the dollar on those transactions if we had to pay anything?" he asked. "What would have happened to the financial system had it not been paid? These are the questions that should be pursued," he said.

[flpoljunkie]

1. "Why did we need to pay 100 cents on the dollar for those transactions if we had to pay anything?

That is the question.

[Jennicut]

2. That is an important question and good points made by Spitzer.

[firedupdem]

3. I'm glad he's starting to speak out on these issues. n/t

[Skidmore]

4. Not much for conspiracy theories, but kinda makes you wonder

if the reason Spitzer was taken out and the Madam died wasn't to keep him from exposing the Wall Street scams. Eh?

[Karenina]

5. Don't be REEEEDIKULUSS!!!

Such things NEVER happen in Amurikkka!!! ;-)

[Inuca]

6. Spitzer took himself out and it's a damn shame he did

human fraility aside, and from the limited info and understanding of these issues that I have, he was very good and would probably ahve been very helpful now.

[alsame]

8. I think he knew that lots of scams

were going on and he was most likely investigating when he was Gov. Even when he was the NY AG, he was looking into corporate shenanigans. It was on of the reasons I strongly supported him.

[genna]

7. I felt like Spitzer folded because his habits made his professional conduct questionable.

How much hypocrisy can any or all of us stand, right?


I didn't think he should have resigned due to his high risk behavior. He should have had some penance, therapy or something. His ability to address criminal conduct in Wall Street was different in kind to religious sin/moral failing conduct.

I've said I was wrong on Bill Clinton because I thought he was masking a greater hypocrisy we should have focused on like what was his real relationship with Wall Street (why did the DLC get so much play and 'transform' the failing Carter party? why was important to have a Sister Souljah moment...is it okay to suck up to divide our people like that as a means to show how tough you are? why have a don't ask don't tell policy, if there are so many willing and able bodied GLBT people who want to join or continue to serve the military?). The way Miss Lewinsky was treated was deplorable. Young. Uninformed. Vulnerable. I still believe personal deplorable behavior is different than deplorable public policy.


I haven't figured out how my good government and deplorable personal conduct philosophy knits together.

Elliot Spitzer should have been able to stay in government long enough to break up monopolies in Wall Street.