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Spitzer Takes Aim at Real Disgrace at A.I.G.
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times blog
Posted: March 28th, 2009
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/spitzer-takes-a...
Eliot Spitzer must miss his glory days when he was the scourge of Wall Street as New Yorks attorney general. With the bonus battle exploding at the American International Group, Mr. Spitzer has jumped into the fray and dismissed the bonus scandal, arguing that it is obscuring the real disgrace at A.I.G. Why are A.I.G.s counterparties getting paid back in full, to the tune of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars? he asks in an article on Slate. Mr. Spitzer notes that A.I.G.s trading parties were all the big banks including Goldman Sachs, many of which received billions of dollars from the governments Troubled Asset Relief Program. So now we know for sure what we already surmised: The A.I.G. bailout has been a way to hide an enormous second round of cash to the same group that had received TARP money already, he writes. It all appears, once again, to be the same insiders protecting themselves against sharing the pain and risk of their own bad adventure, Mr. Spitzer writes. Recounting how the economic crisis is affecting workers, with tax increases, pay cuts and layoffs, Mr. Spitzer asks: Why cant Wall Street royalty shoulder some of the burden? Why did Goldman have to get back 100 cents on the dollar? Didnt we already give Goldman a $25 billion capital infusion, and arent they sitting on more than $100 billion in cash? What is the deeper relationship between Goldman and A.I.G.?
Note: For the article written in 2008 by former NY Governor Spitzer which likely caused him to be targeted for a takedown just weeks later, click here. For lots more on the hidden realities of the Wall Street bailout, click here.
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