Elliot Spitzer, et al. : "Show Us the Email"

[amborin]

the Treasury is in discussions with American International Group about selling the taxpayers’ 80 percent ownership stake in that company. The government recently permitted several banks to break free of its potential oversight by repaying loans made during the rescue. But with respect to A.I.G., the Treasury should not move so fast. There is one job left to do.

When A.I.G.’s financial products division collapsed — ultimately requiring a federal bailout of $180 billion — those who had been prospering from A.I.G.’s schemes scurried for taxpayer cover. Yet, more than a year after the rescue began, crucial questions remain unanswered. Who knew what, and when? Who benefited, and by exactly how much? Would A.I.G.’s counterparties have failed without taxpayer support?

The three of us, as experienced investigators and prosecutors of financial fraud, cannot answer these questions now. But we know where the answers are. They are in the trove of e-mail messages still backed up on A.I.G. servers, as well as in the key internal accounting documents and financial models generated by A.I.G. during the past decade. Before releasing its regulatory clutches, the government should insist that the company immediately make these materials public. By putting the evidence online, the government could establish a new form of “open source” investigation.
excerpt

<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/opinion/20partnoy.html?ref=opinion>



"So here we have the pattern:"

1.Goldman creates or sells $23 billion (or more) of CDOs and stuffs them into AIG.

2.Goldman proclaims to the world they have no exposure to CDOs and warns that banks and insurers with CDO
exposure will get downgraded.

3.Goldman initiates the mark downs of CDOs with AIG and others, acelerating the market’s downward
spiral.

4.Huge mark to market losses lead insurer and bank
credit to freeze, short term markets to lock up, ABCP to
collapse.

5.AIG posts as much collateral as it has to Goldman,
who has more aggressively marked down the exposure.

6.Bond insurers are downgraded, banks begin commutations with
them.

7.AIG fails, Fed steps in, Goldman gets bailed out at
par.

<http://firedoglake.com/2009/12/20/spitzer-partnoy-black-call-for-aig-open-source-investigation-and-goldman-implications/#comments>

[deadmessengers]

1. It's a damn shame.

Every time I read anything by Eliot Spitzer I sit there and wonder how much good he could have accomplished if he could have kept his fucking dick in his pants. It's pathetic that when it comes to our politicians we worry more about their private acts of immorality more than their public acts of integrity, but even so, Eliot Spitzer knew that and still did what he did anyway.

I sincerely believe that if it wasn't for Eliot Spitzer's lack of self-control, he would have been making America a much different place right now.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. I agree. His arrogance cost all of us, in the long run.

He would have been a great attorney-general. He sure would have been better than Paterson as governor of NY

[whistler162]

4. He was far worse than Paterson!

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Guess my view of Paterson and your view of Paterson are very different....

The man is in so far over his head, it is amazing he can breathe.

[whistler162]

3. Not much since the prostitute was the last

stupidity on his part!

unrec for any posting referencing Spitzer!

[travelingtypist]

5. Only Dems resign for this shit.

Vitter, Ensign, are still in the Senate, Sanford is still Governor. It's a lovely double standard.

[customerserviceguy]

7. It's not his adultery that I blame him for

It's his hypocrisy. He went after sex workers with a vengeance when he was involved in law enforcement.

[eShirl]

8. How much longer does he have to pay for that, anyway?

Is it a life sentence?

[slipslidingaway]

6. knr nt