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AIG Has Become A Figurehead Of All That Is Broken In America
- AIG
- American International Group
- Anastasia Kelly
- Bank of America
- Bank of America
- Bank of New York
- Equity Markets
- Fail
- Federal Reserve
- Federal Reserve Bank
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- headlines
- Insurance Companies
- Jonathan Weil
- Mary Schapiro
- Moral Hazard
- New York Times
- None
- Reality
- Securities and Exchange Commission
- Tim Geithner
- Treasury Department
The latest observation on our depressing economic reality, behind the glitzy headlines and the 3D TV screens, comes from Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil who rightfully asks "if AIG executives repeatedly claimed the stock was worthless, how do the executives, auditors, regulators, and, ultimately, the government, still have the balls to indicate the company's stock has any intrinsic value, both its publicly traded version and its book equity." Weil also joins the long list of people who wonder, just what the hell is the SEC's function in this day and age, when publicly-traded companies, many of them government backstopped, can disclose anything and everything they desire, even when such disclosure is flawed and purposefully misleading (see Bank of America and the earlier piece on a lying Tim Geithner and the very same AIG) with absolutely no repercussions. It is all really getting just far too depressing for US taxpayers to even be indignant. Maybe that has been the point all along...
One line of attack indicates a level of complicity by none other than AIG auditors PwC:
It’s now public knowledge that AIG was arguing to the
government’s special master for executive pay last summer and
fall that its common shares were worthless, and that its top
managers therefore should receive their salaries all in cash
rather than partly in stock. This revelation came thanks to
Steven Brill’s article in last weekend’s New York Times
magazine. Brill’s primary source was impeccable: Kenneth
Feinberg, the pay czar himself.
There’s an important angle to this story not addressed in
Brill’s article. If top AIG executives believed the common stock
was worthless, why did the company keep issuing financial
statements that still showed billions of dollars of common
shareholder equity? If the Securities and Exchange Commission
isn’t digging into this question already, it should be. So
should AIG’s outside auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
“Worthless” is the word Anastasia Kelly, AIG’s general
counsel and vice chairman at the time, used during the company’s
compensation negotiations, according to Feinberg. We also
learned from Brill’s article that Federal Reserve Bank of New
York officials agreed with AIG’s position, after the Treasury
Department told Feinberg to consult with them.
The next angle, of course focuses on the equally useless figurehead of incompetence, Mary Schapiro. Weil's questions merit a serious answer from at least the SEC, which is willfully allowing this charade to continue, and fooling misguided and less than sophisticated investors to pad the pockets of those who know what is really going on.
It remains a mystery to me why AIG still trades for about
$29, giving it a market cap of more than $20 billion,
considering that the company has needed four government bailouts
valued at more than $180 billion. It shouldn’t surprise anyone
that senior AIG executives harbored similar feelings. For AIG to
pay back even part of the government’s money, it probably would
have to massively dilute existing shareholders by selling new
stock, which itself may not ever be possible.
Weil's conclusion, which is depressing in its own, as it highlights what we have been claiming for so long, that the US market, far beyond a mere ponzi, has left investors to fend entirely for themselves, as the regulators have been completely subsumed by Wall Street's "last minute thievery" apparatus before it all goes to hell, is as follows:
While many financial companies’ stocks and bonds have
soared since last spring, that’s not necessarily because their
fundamentals are so great or their numbers are so credible. The
main thing propping them up is the promise that the government
will backstop companies it deems too important to fail. Take
away that support and market confidence would go with it,
because investors still wouldn’t know which companies’ books to
trust.
At least at AIG, some of the secrets are starting to come
out. Fed and Treasury officials should feel ashamed for letting
AIG’s bosses keep them from the public for so long.
Good luck to anyone at the SEC who feels inspired to
investigate this can of worms.
The latest twist in the AIG saga provides a reminder of one
of the fundamental flaws in the government’s bailout efforts.
Rather than insisting that failing banks and insurance companies
come clean about the rot on their balance sheets as a condition
of accepting taxpayer money, the government plied them with cash
first and let them keep their true financial condition hidden.
Moral hazard reigning supreme, regulatory capture, incompetence, misdirection, and outright fraud, auditor complicity, broken equity markets, and an administration whose only answer to every problem is to stuff it ever deeper under the carpet and throw ever increasing amounts of money... This is what this once great nation has become.
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Geithner is nothing but a tag team partner of Hank Paulson without Goldman Sachs on your resume. Go stand in the corner and think about what you have done. IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO GO!
One of this grandpa’s goals for 2010 is to see Turbo Tax Timmy out of office. You sir are not in the best interest of our grandchildren. Unless I am mistaken, I do not believe Obama had your behavior in mind as he pounded on the campaign pulpit, “yes we can”.
I can only imagine what else the government is fibbing about...labor numbers, GDP, birth/death rate model, FOMC balance sheet, equity market manipulation...
right, they are cooking all numbers they can.
Expect very good (cooked) employment figures tomorrow and the Dow to gain +250.
CNBCOMCASTAGANDA will do the rest for you !
Seems time reveals that most things called "conspiracy theories" presently end up being revealed later as truth. It just takes time. If we have any time left............
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-6930-0-5-5--.html
"33 Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True, What Every Person Should Know…" I thought this was a good summary.
Cold comfort in the fact that the internet allows news to travel more quickly than ever. In the past you just had to shut up the mainstream media. Ah the good old days!
Please keep up the great work and most importantly keep the faith.
Keep the Faith? In what or whom? Please ...
ZH is one of the most outstanding sites for financial
investigation on the web. Every day Z. Hedge reveals, in
staggering volumes, the disgusting levels of political Kleptocracry, financial oligarchy and regulatory capture
that defines the U.S.' stunning descent into fascism.
First the U.S. allowed manufacturing to be hollowed out
to China & Asia, then services out-sourced to India, then
blew up the mother of all: real estate, credit and bank
bubbles and now has bailed out every entity that caused
the financial world to nearly collapse. Then the U.S.
allows obscene banking profits (with no windfall profit
tax claw backs) based on ZIRP and free money out the
Fed's back door.
And no one has gone to JAIL - from bankers, mortgage
agents, rating agencies, insurance companies, auto
companies, credit arms and the regulatory agencies.
You see, we now live in a country without capitalism,
without moral hazard, without consequences for actions -
an asylum where we can no longer tell who are the inmates
and who are the authorities.
R.Chunk, "they" have all the power and they have used
it to bail themselves out by stealing taxpayer money and
leaving us so in debt we will not recover. They have made
all of us into debt slaves without so much as a vote.
Until people understand what has happened and enough outrage forms to enforce consequences for this debauchery
nothing will REALLY change. How much are we willing to
personally risk to confront this hideous abuse of our
country? Now that is going to be THE question.
In whom should we now trust?
The fact is, the ''prophetic'' strong delusion is now upon this generation. If you do not have understanding of the ''prophetic'' reality at hand, just look to history and know this, the City of Babylon that is fallen, as every fallen kingdom in the past, the same principle, the same ''strong delusion'' that sealed the fallen, well... all the nations are now hosting the same judgment in this New World Order global market system.
In the case of provision; offered in the defense for the U.S. Constitution, the demand for and of the people, the host(s) of the law, ...is to ...defend their own individual life, freedom and liberty in order to: receive justice and sustain the Republic for which citizens stand in agreement.
The fact is, Americans are a corrupted people do to: the great deception of the people as a result of: the offer(s) of temptation, being, trust in the corrupted domestic market players exposed to and tempted by the ancient call for a New World Order Global Claim OF DOMINION.
This claim is a deadly trespass and lethal call to ''perish according to ones own judgment'', it's the spirit of suicide.
This claim is one that assumes the ''point of order'' above the Constitution of the United States and every nation. The only defense, against this New World Order in charge of the American government and global market now, is ...to labor to destroy the spirit sealed by this prophetic strong delusion.
This means war, and in case you have not accepted the fact that you were born, without a choice to be born, inside a body at war and you now walk upon the Earth that is as corrupted as the womb, WAKE UP!
The day the Health Care Bill becomes law, and subjects all Americans to prison, if Americans do not accept the new order, that will be the day bloodshed will be called for and will surely come because, it will mark the end of the rule of law. ''The Constitution'' will declared all persons in contempt, persons in contempt of their own Constitution, as persons attempting to protect the government official and officers that would attempt to secure the corrupted persons with contempt for life, freedom, liberty and justice for all and that attempt to carry out the claim of dominion this New World Order ''Health Care Law'' defines. This Bill, instead of defending; the Constitution, the Republic and it's defenders, ''the people'' as separate individuals not bound to the New World Order communist rule of thumb this Bill defines, demands the Bills' defenders imprison all defenders of life, freedom and liberty, and calls for the use of lethal force against everyone in defense of the U.S. Constitution, for the sake of the prophetic strong delusion, the spirit or ''strong delusion'' of the New World Order offer of temptation.
At this point in history, global public awareness or ''revelation'', there is only a call to stand fast and do no harm but, if Americans and others do not stand fast, they have no legal grounds to do anything but kill everyone in defense of the New World Order criminal enterprise in America and every nation on Earth.
In the Bible this ''killing time'' eventuality is realized and is well defined. First; there is the time of sealing, that hour is now upon this generation and is ending, then, when the last person is sealed and the strong delusion of the leaders of nations has sealed the peace with Israel and the nations, the time of great tribulation comes and finally the great and terrible hour of judgment, which is the return of the full glory of The Truth, the Light of God in Christ, the Lord of the harvest that shall destroy all of man sealed to perish in valley of the shadow of death according to the delusion of their own will, which is founded upon the claim of dominion offered in contempt of mercy, salvation, life and freedom from evil.
There is no call for anyone to kill people in the name of the mercy of God in Christ, there is a call for judgment to come upon persons given the prophetic strong delusion, those that accept their own will after they are sealed by the offer of temptation.
The people that take up the arm of man in defense of life, in the case of the New World Order spirit of corruption and claim of dominion, they do not know the mercy of God in Christ and the power of mercy, much less, they do not know or understand the reality of the deceived enough to stand fast and do no harm.
The fact is, the prison planet can't exist if mercy rules before and after it is risen from the womb and the tomb in the valley of the shadow of death.
The New World Order call at hand, in this MARKet, offers the claim of dominion in contempt of: life, freedom, liberty and justice.
The True Call of Order is not a choice, it is The Gift of Mercy and Life Eternal or the sure reality of the end of the host(s) of corruption. Those that do not receive the eternal mercy of God in Christ and that do reject the mercy offered by the Holy Spirit of God in Christ, they are committed to corruption and the delusion of their own willful act of suicide. The Truth has not chosen them because, their testimony is risen for the sake of the knowledge of corruption, which is the revelation of absence, the black hole that separates physical being and The Truth of The Light and glory of The Creator in Christ offering salvation for the sake of the rule of mercy, which is the will of God in Christ.
Everyone rejecting the mercy of Yahweh in Yahshua shall perish according to their own will, which is founded upon the absence of Cause.
The time is at hand, divest from this market, it offers no mercy and now stands fully ripe in corruption. If you do eat the fruit thereof, you shall be sealed with the mark of contempt and shall become the New World Order which is ''Absence''.
Stand fast, do no harm, and let the corrupt fall but, make sure you offer salvation to all.
Now- what about all off those swaps the banks are packing ????
Tyler, two words (hints of The Graduate re: plastics): National Security. What do you suppose would have happened if the central government hadn't inserted itself into the private marketplace?
Failure.
No, not personal, private marketplace failure - the situation on the ground would be hardly different that it is in fact today. What I'm referring to is the failure of the national government, hence the term "national" security.
It's almost like the cry for assistance embodied in "Help, police"! Are people really crying out for help from the police, or is it to be correctly interpreted in a similar vein as "Help, thief"!
Once you realize that the existing government no longer represents the People's interests, as it was constructed in the Constitution, but is in fact nothing more than an occupying force enabled by shadow interests who successfully mounted a covert coup, then all the machinations and actions are easily and simply explained.
As Madame Defarge would advise, forget the outrage and stick to your knitting.
We're not turning Japanese as the song goes, we are turning into our southern brothers, Mexico. "Que pasa?" And no one really knows, or feels emboldened to do anything.
So does anyone know if this is the real deal?
http://www.worldreports.org/news/257_operation_stillpoint_to_destroy_ame...
I'm getting this feeling TBTF is like a billboard that our eyes and ears are focused on when those in the know, know the true slogan. NOWF, No One Will Fail.
If jobs are the concern, no company can fail because they are all interdependent.
You see a few companies go BK, and what use to take 4 years is now done in 4 months?
Long drawn out BK's are like chinese water tortures, lawyers fight, no cap-ex is spent, the best workers leave.
Now, miraculously that does not happen. In one door out the other. The factual resuslts. A business can get back to spending.
No different than Habeas Corpus disappearing for the "security crisis" and international law taking a back seat for the "oil crisis." And now, for the finale, whatever remnants are left of criminal, regulatory and property law are quietly exiting the stage for our "economic crisis." Bananas over ballots, graft over gavels, scissors cuts paper.
The AIG bailout depresses people. Yippee, because it doesn't depress me. Where AIG was before the bailout is depressing.
This was never a great nations guys !! Its only an illusion that the mainstream media has been creating for all of us !! All greatness (if there ever was died in the Volcker era) !! Here is a reality check for America (from 1930)---
The Forgotten (middle class) Man (& Woman) is delving away in patient industry, supporting his family, paying his taxes (and will be paying a lot more in taxes 2010 onwards), (conscientiously contributing to his 401k), casting his vote, supporting the church and the school, reading his newspaper, and cheering for the politician of his admiration, but he is the only one for whom there is no provision in the great scramble and the big divide.
- William Sumner quote prefacing Anatomy of a Bubble
written in 1930s starting with Great Depression !!
Sounds uncannily similar to 2009/10 !!
So .gov via its proxies spent a gazillion dollars of taxpayer money to skyrocket AIG stock so they could reward the company's executives without having to take heat from the public. It's likely big bank stocks are up huge (WFC 8 percent) since the first of the year in order to puff up year end stock bonuses.
Look at the response to the hint of a selloff this morning. They completely control these markets. If you're betting against them, your only hope is that things collapse.
It just became a litmus test vote.
Either Congress enforces the law or they don't.
I will vote against politician who votes to confirm Ben Bernanke. It is that simple.
Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. Are you part of the solution or part of the problem?
The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it. -- Mengele Joseph
Isn't Tim Geithner just George W. Bush v2.0? And where is the Queen of Diamonds in all this?
At $29 per share, I thought AIG's market was around $4B, not $20B.
I am just thankful that they continue to sponsor Manchester United and have their logo featured prominently on the front of the team's kit. After all keeping up appearences and honoring contracts is what AIG is all about. At least it is not in Lloyd B's pocket.
depression - interesting mental/physical condition, no? 1/2 the company laid off now - stress has been there for the last year. depression is the next stop and beginning to emerge in all personnel. final stage: total personal lock-up. that's when they come and take everything - you won't resist - - - - -