28 January 2010

AIG Bailout and taxpayer rip-off

A lot of controversy is surrounding the $62.1 billion handover to bank counterparties to close out trades on credit default swaps (CDO) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO) at 100 cents on the dollar made before and after AIG was rescued .

Professor Linus Wilson of the University of Louisiana has put together this helpful chart showing exactly how the bailout went down, complete with which banks got how much, published in Clusterstock.



From this analysis, the US taxpayer is $30 billion down and SocGen is the winner of the contest followed by Goldman Sachs, $2.5 billion behind.

For the controversy, please refer links posted in the "Source" section.

Before regulating more, policy makers should focus on transparency.

Source:

Business Insider - Clusterstock
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-how-the-aig-bailout-worked-2010-1?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CS_COTD_012710

MSN Money: New emails show AIG mulled bank payment disclosures
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=OBR&Date=20100117&ID=10993912&Symbol=GS

Business Week: AIG 100-Cents Fed Deal Driven by France Belied by French Banks
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-20/aig-100-cents-fed-deal-driven-by-france-belied-by-french-banks.html

Reuters: AIG’s mysterious Schedule A finally revealed
http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-dealzone/2010/01/27/aigs-mysterious-schedule-a-finally-revealed/

Bloomberg: AIG’s Bank Payments Probed by TARP Inspector General

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aINWOYTgy2zk