Yep he did. Keep pounding Jim, AIG policyholders need not also be bagholders too.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEoK2BdDtj4]
Category: Credit Default Swaps
Harry Markopolos backs up Jim Brown!
Here’s the link to Huff Po where I found this backup to Jim Brown’s column.
You’ll have to go there to read the story and see the big picture of this snapshot.
Jim Brown ain’t backing down on AIG’s Insolvency: Captured Regulators and Jackassery at the NAICS
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
WHY CAN’T I GET A LOUISIANA BAILOUT?
At first, it was the big financial guys who were “too big to fail” that were getting all that bailout money. Billions to banks, insurance companies, and then to auto makers. If you are old enough to remember back to the depression, the popular song of the suffering epitomized what was taking place:
“Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad, now it’s done. Brother, can you spare a dime?”
Well you can sure tell that inflation kicked in. Instead of financial panhandlers asking passersby for a dime, they head to Washington and ask for a spare $50 billion or so.
At the front of the line is A.I.G., Louisiana’s biggest insurance boondoggle that this column wrote about last week. It is hands down the biggest single financial disaster in Louisiana history of a company with such a huge Louisiana presence. This is a company that recently posted the largest quarterly loss in American Corporate history-some $61.7 billion. To put this sum in perspective, A.I.G. was losing more than $27 million every hour. That’s $465,000 every minute.
Now one would assume that there are regulatory mechanisms in place to protect the weary and leery average citizen. And in fact, the supposed white knights are the various state insurance commissioners who took great umbrage of the accusations made in last week’s column of how perilous the financial condition of A.I. G. happens to be. “Misinformation is being circulated” with “inappropriate assertions based on incomplete information that ultimately hurt both policyholders and taxpayers,” the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ press release lamented. The release went on to say that “A.I.G. companies are financially sound and fully able to pay claims.” Continue reading “Jim Brown ain’t backing down on AIG’s Insolvency: Captured Regulators and Jackassery at the NAICS”
Additional evidence the insurance crowd in New York marches to the beat of a different drummer
You’d think after the first time AIG paid fat executive bonuses while borrowing billions from the Treasury because of their habit of “tatooing” toxic paper they would have learned. Nope, seems the gang thinks they deserve extra for their fine work cratering the financial system in 2008. So while the nations unemployment rate skyrockets to 10% thanks to Wall Street greed millions in taxpayer dollars will be paid to the people who brought you this disaster.
D-I-S-C-O-N-N-E-C-T
Here is the Reuters story courtesy of Yahoo Finance:
American International Group (NYSE:AIG – News) is preparing to pay next week millions of dollars more in bonuses to dozens of corporate executives, a source familiar with the development said.
AIG has been talking with Washington’s newly-appointed compensation czar Kenneth Feinberg about the bonuses, which are due to be paid on July 15, said the source.
The company is reviewing its compensation plans with Washington as it tries to avoid the national furor set off by $165 million in retention bonuses paid to employees of a financial products unit in March. Much of AIG’s $99 billion in losses last year stemmed from derivatives written by that unit. Continue reading “Additional evidence the insurance crowd in New York marches to the beat of a different drummer”
kudos for Wilson – not yet
Regulate me, please, the opinion column written by Allstate CEO Tom Wilson, appeared in the April 15 NYT in the guise of Wilson’s on-going effort to garner support for national regulation of the insurance industry.
Calling it his CDS mea culpa, Option ARMageddon gave Wilson “kudos” for coming clean:
New York State’s Insurance Superintendent, Eric Dinallo, on the other hand, had no kudos to offer:
“While the credit default swap market is not regulated, insurance company use of credit default swaps is,” Mr. Dinallo said in a statement. “In New York, no insurance company can use credit default swaps except under very specific and limited ways and only with approval.”
Was Option ARMageddon spot on or was Wilson’s agenda to set up Dinallo and DOI to the advantage of his efforts to secure national regulation of the insurance industry? Dinallo’s press release suggests Wilson may have had another agenda – one that would lead to Hank Greenberg, AIG, and, perhaps, other insurers. Continue reading “kudos for Wilson – not yet”
What a revolting develoment – lenders invest in CDS and pull the trigger
While lenders are living the life of Riley, the Financial Times reports this revolting development.
Credit default swaps, the derivatives instruments that have figured prominently in the global financial crisis, are now being blamed for playing a role in two bankruptcy filings this week.
Bankers and lawyers involved in restructuring efforts say they are concerned some lenders to troubled companies, such as newsprint producer AbitibiBowater and mall owner General Growth Properties, stand to benefit from a default because they also hold default swaps, which entitle them to payments in such events.
“We have seen CDS becoming a significant factor” when negotiations on out-of-court restructurings fail, said Alan Kornberg, the partner in charge of the bankruptcy practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Rice, speaking generally. “We used to talk about the practice theoretically but now we see cases where it is hard to get lenders to agree to tender or to compromise and then you find out that these holdouts had significant CDS protection.” Continue reading “What a revolting develoment – lenders invest in CDS and pull the trigger”