It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Originally posted by tsloan
I was hoping that someone had their head up in class today! Yes everyone A.I.G. has asked for ANOTHER bail out and not only that they have another client big ticket treatment trip planned that was discovered....Guys I have called my local and state political rep and I have made it clear as of today I will do all in my power to make sure their re-election doesn't happen if we do not start bringing these people in to face criminal charges I urge everyone in here who give a crap to do this.
Originally posted by Realtruth
Originally posted by tsloan
I was hoping that someone had their head up in class today! Yes everyone A.I.G. has asked for ANOTHER bail out and not only that they have another client big ticket treatment trip planned that was discovered....Guys I have called my local and state political rep and I have made it clear as of today I will do all in my power to make sure their re-election doesn't happen if we do not start bringing these people in to face criminal charges I urge everyone in here who give a crap to do this.
As much as I agree with your conviction, you are writing letters to politicians that were bullied into a 4 day bailout package. They did not represent the people but folded to pressure from the lobbyists and elite.
We need people with ethics that no matter what the cost, even their seats will vote for the people.
By the mid-'90s, JPMorgan's books were loaded with tens of billions of dollars in loans to corporations and foreign governments, and by federal law it had to keep huge amounts of capital in reserve in case any of them went bad. But what if JPMorgan could create a device that would protect it if those loans defaulted, and free up that capital?
What the bankers hit on was a sort of insurance policy: a third party would assume the risk of the debt going sour, and in exchange would receive regular payments from the bank, similar to insurance premiums. JPMorgan would then get to remove the risk from its books and free up the reserves. The scheme was called a "credit default swap," and it was a twist on something bankers had been doing for a while to hedge against fluctuations in interest rates and commodity prices. While the concept had been floating around the markets for a couple of years, JPMorgan was the first bank to make a big bet on credit default swaps. It built up a "swaps" desk in the mid-'90s and hired young math and science grads from schools like MIT and Cambridge to create a market for the complex instruments.
Originally posted by ZeroKnowledge
Thank you! Finally i can understand why this mess started. However i still do not understand why this bubble was allowed to inflate. I mean surely people in governments who have connections in money sector were aware of this scam and that it will eventually burst. Or - "eat and drink for tomorrow we die" philosophy prevailed?
Until those guys that make the decisions (and big money) will be forced to pay for their dirty tricks - this is bound to happen again.
Originally posted by stander
The article that OP posted is biased: it implicates AIG as an inventor of a hedge called "the credit default swap." That's not true. It was JP Morgan execs who became unhappy back in 1990s with so much inactive reserve money. So they began to dig a loophole . . .
By the mid-'90s, JPMorgan's books were loaded with tens of billions of dollars in loans to corporations and foreign governments, and by federal law it had to keep huge amounts of capital in reserve in case any of them went bad. But what if JPMorgan could create a device that would protect it if those loans defaulted, and free up that capital?
What the bankers hit on was a sort of insurance policy: a third party would assume the risk of the debt going sour, and in exchange would receive regular payments from the bank, similar to insurance premiums. JPMorgan would then get to remove the risk from its books and free up the reserves. The scheme was called a "credit default swap," and it was a twist on something bankers had been doing for a while to hedge against fluctuations in interest rates and commodity prices. While the concept had been floating around the markets for a couple of years, JPMorgan was the first bank to make a big bet on credit default swaps. It built up a "swaps" desk in the mid-'90s and hired young math and science grads from schools like MIT and Cambridge to create a market for the complex instruments.
There are not too many 25-year-old guys who would be allowed to go through $300 billion in loans to asses the risks. It's a cool story.
Originally posted by cpdaman
This article is not blaming the Basel II regulations , it is blaming the poor loans made by banks and the CDS insurance AIG gave out to create a loop hole to get around basel II, in order for them to satisfy there greed and desperation to keep expanding the credit bubble.