Bailouts - The "Legal" Way to Steal

Read the shockingly honest and well written article from the NY Times titled In U.S. Bailout of A.I.G., Forgiveness for Big Banks showing how we were totally screwed by the three personages seen above. Without a doubt, the biggest theft in history perpetrated by government, the Fed and Wall street, which includes the aforementioned AIG affair, will cost this country in ways that cannot be fathomed as we slide ever closer to sovereign insolvency. What a sad thing to see in this once great nation where innovation and creativity ruled in business and not corruption, incompetence and greed. 

A Legal Waiver

Unknown outside of a few Wall Street legal departments, the A.I.G. waiver was released last month by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform amid 250,000 pages of largely undisclosed documents. The documents, reviewed by The New York Times, provide the most comprehensive public record of how the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Treasury Department orchestrated one of the biggest corporate bailouts in history.

The documents also indicate that regulators ignored recommendations from their own advisers to force the banks to accept losses on their A.I.G. deals and instead paid the banks in full for the contracts. That decision, say critics of the A.I.G. bailout, has cost taxpayers billions of extra dollars in payments to the banks. It also contrasts with the hard line the White House took in 2008 when it forced Chrysler’s lenders to take losses when the government bailed out the auto giant.. 

After reading this, check out Regulation Blues seen below to see how transparency would have prevented the meltdown we are experiencing today.