Has it occurred to anyone that the entire MSM (or "traditional media" as we're instructed to call it here) should not be trusted whenever they are creating a gigantic cacophony over something? It sure sets off red flags with me. Reminds me of "weapons of mass destruction" and "45 minutes" and "mushroom clouds" and "mobile weapons labs".
Nobody knew how to take on Wall Street better than Elliot Spitzer. And now he's seeing the REAL scandal behind the looting of America at the behest of AIG.
The appearance that this was all an inside job is overwhelming. AIG was nothing more than a conduit for huge capital flows to the same old suspects, with no reason or explanation.
The bonuses are peanuts compared to the real amount of money in question here. Millions as opposed to billions.
The AIG bailout has been a way to hide an enormous second round of cash to the same group that had received TARP money already.
Who are the parties really benefitting? The usual suspects: Goldman, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, etc. etc.
The same parties who had ALREADY milked us for billions.
They are now getting MORE billions through AIG.
Why did Goldman have to get back 100 cents on the dollar? Didn't we already give Goldman a $25 billion capital infusion, and aren't they sitting on more than $100 billion in cash? Haven't we been told recently that they are beginning to come back to fiscal stability? If that is so, couldn't they have accepted a discount, and couldn't they have agreed to certain conditions before the AIG dollars—that is, our dollars—flowed?
This is where the real outrage should be focused. Not that giving bonuses to the failed executives, many of whom have simply taken the money and ran away, is something that should be ignored -- obviously it is criminal and infuriating.
Spitzer poses some vital questions that must be answered in this piece, and concludes:
Failure to answer these questions will feed the populist rage that is metastasizing very quickly. And it will raise basic questions about the competence of those who are supposedly guiding this economic policy.
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