Nice Write Up on the REAL AIG story? I think not, but its still a good chuckle.
emac.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2009/07/10/the-real-aig-controversy
To Summarize:
The real controversy is this. AIG insured bonds built on subprime trash, loans taken out by borrowers with credit histories shot through with more holes than Swiss cheese. Meaning, AIG sold insurance to Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse for their own bonds, insurance that came without any adequate capital cushion against this nonsense whatsoever.
And get this Wall Street firms got to price tag on their own, what’s called "fair value," the cost of those bonds that AIG insured. That meant Wall Street firms could potentially low ball the value of their bonds in order to get AIG insurance payouts. Which, again, the US taxpayer eventually covered at 100 cents on the dollar.
America has got to get over the compensation debate. AIG and GS did exactly what 99.999999999999% of Americans would do if left in similar positions.
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