What is the Fed hiding re: AIG’s bailout and released Fed report that includes redacted info that is publicly available
From a naked capitalism detailed analysis:
We now show that this argument is worthless. Nearly all of the deleted information can be reassembled from sources that are publicly available. The traders whom the Fed professes to find worrisome have access to far more information.
And:
Many commentators have commended Goldman on the cleverness with which the bank successfully shorted the mortgage market. But why, then, does it seem from the data as if Goldman was systematically trying to increase its exposure to AIG?
And why is there such a pronounced connection between Goldman and the French bank SocGen, the two biggest AIG counterparties and two institutions which have in the past been associated (separately) to the decision to bail out AIG?
Probably the only way to resolve these questions and, incidentally, restore some measure of credibility to US financial governance is to press for additional information.
When the Swiss bank UBS was bailed out by its government, it was forced by its regulators to release a detailed report on how it had blown itself up. What great service for the country have our banks performed that justifies letting them to shroud their actions in obscurity?
Reason you should care:
I assume you’d want to know if fraud was involved in destroying our financial system that led to us spending trillions to prop it up and bail it out.
Wouldn’t you want to know if it’s still legal to destroy the economy, make money doing it and get refunded 100% on the dollar by us if something goes wrong?
Wouldn’t you like to know if that’s what happened during the financial meltdown?
naked capitalism continues:
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission needs to use its subpoena powers to compel the banks in question to dump emails and documents into the public domain. At that point, it will be possible for independent observers to work with that information and come to their own conclusions about how the global economy went into cardiac arrest. If there are bodies buried, exhume them. Having a functional financial system is more important than helping powerfully placed, undeserving parties avoid embarrassment.
Another question you want to ask yourself, how would you like to live on only the cash in your pocket while Lawyers negotiate thru Court about various legalese and values of complicated financial products that are almost impossible to understand? That’s one of the reasons why cash was thrown at Banks in Fall 2008.