AIG posting a 60 billion dollar loss for last quarter!

www.reuters.com...

They are also asking the government for more money to put in their black hole of a company. 60 billion dollars would be the greatest loss in U.S. corporate history. Markets are already at a 12 year low, we will have to see how this news affects things tomorrow.

reply to post by RetinoidReceptor


Screw AIG!!! They obviously dont know how to handle money, they keep getting more and more into debt and they want more of our hard earned $$$$ ????

With an impressive track record like that, we would be silly not to give them more money. How do i get a job where i can show such poor performance, and have the chutzpah to ask for more bailout money?

reply to post by g raj

How do i get a job where i can show such poor performance, and have the chutzpah to ask for more bailout money?

I think a job as a politician would suit you nicely..if this is what you are looking for.

They show poor performance and ask for more money...heh...well they don't ask they just take...but I think you see the resemblance.

Sad thing is they will get whatever they want. They have way to many derivitive contracts, probably 100's of billions if not trillions worth. They will not be allowed to fail and they know it.

The really scary thing is they are not the only ones that played that game, and may not be the last bottomless pit the government tries to keep afloat.

Karl Denninger on The Market Ticker brings up the history of AIG and leads into some very interesting (and disturbing) questions.

Short clips, see link for full article

Note that AIG has been selling insurance in China.

Assets.

Hmmmm... we all assumed those "assets" were mortgages.

But were they mortgages?

Maybe not.

$150 billion in "loans" out thus far to AIG.

An extraordinary amount, more than extended to any other institution - even more than Fannie and Freddie (each.)

Even Citibank, which has come to the TARP window twice, has only an asset guarantee, not an operating line of credit of that size. We've also "guaranteed" (or "taken on") tens of billions more in "bad assets" (presumably credit-default swaps, which might be open-ended obligations.)

Now AIG, a company founded in China in 1919, with very strong ties in China, is about to report a $60 billion dollar loss in one quarter and is reported to be seeking even more money - or at least a conversion to common equity - from the federal government.

This is what The Fed said in November:

“Counterparties around the world continue to have significant exposure to AIG, and market conditions continue to be fragile and sensitive to the potential disorderly failure of AIG,” the Fed said in a report in November.

Well, its been three (more) months. Have those exposures been unwound?

If so, nobody's said a thing about it.

How come?

More to the point, exactly who are we bailing out here?

Is it AMERICAN companies?

Or is the truth just a bit different...... and we're not being told because, well, "We The People" might start chanting "When in the course of human events...." were we to be told the truth about where $150 billion has already gone, why we took on some $60 billion in guarantees, and where up to one quarter of a billion dollars may have disappeared to as of Monday.

Don't you think we deserve some of that promised transparency folks?

Are you getting mad yet?

The only other jobs were you can perform poorly and still be considered good are in baseball and weather forecasting.

reply to post by redhatty


I just read this and frankly I just want to puke. America is gone people and its only a matter of time before the masses wake up and realize this. This is why you see the military performing practice raids all over the country. They are doing this not JUST because of the economic turmoil but also because its going to be plain to see that we have been robbed. The bankers have robbed our country blind and our government that is supposed to protect us have not. Folks my stomach is turning to the point to where I seriously want to puke and I do mean this literally.

reply to post by tjeffersonsghost


Sorry

I know what you mean though. Over the next couple of weeks I am closing out my trading accounts, going to all cash. I'm done - I cannot in good conscience make any more profit as my country implodes.

Time to invest in more food, ammo and medical supplies.

Originally posted by redhatty
reply to post by tjeffersonsghost

 

Sorry

I know what you mean though. Over the next couple of weeks I am closing out my trading accounts, going to all cash. I'm done - I cannot in good conscience make any more profit as my country implodes.

Time to invest in more food, ammo and medical supplies.

Me to brother I was seriously telling my wife this yesterday that Im going to all cash, silver, food, and guns. Its near time to hunker down. Im in the city though which sucks. I want to relocate to the midwest in the country but if I do it will take a big chunk of my money. I have to decide on what is better for me...location or the above...

i was watching an interview Bill Moyers did a few days ago with Simon Johnson.
For those that don't know who Simon Johnson is, he is a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. he currently has his own blog baselinescenario.com and He now teaches global economics and management at MIT's Sloan School of Management and is a senior fellow of the Peterson Institute.

Anyway during the interview he was asked about the nationalization of the banks. and he said it needed to happen. now I'm Against the government interfering with business. But this guy is on to something here. He said the Obama Admin should give the FDIC the power to go into these banks that are taking bailouts. review their balance sheets and stress their capitol. If they don't have enough capitol the FDIC should give them 30-60 days to raise enough private capitol to weather the storm. and if they cannot raise the capitol, the FDIC should seize them, beak them up and sell them off to the smaller banks, and attach antitrust clauses to the sell. then he said the Obama Admin needs to update the U.S. anti trust laws since they haven't been touched in over 100 Years to bring them up to today's standards.

I like this guys proposal for a few reasons.

first the banks would no longer get taxpayer money.

second it busts up these banks that are "too big to fail" into smaller pieces.

third it breaks the major political base the big bankers have in this country.

fourth it would spread control of the banks to banks that have a better track record of managing banks. It would put control of these banks in the hands of managers that will be more likely to not make big risks like the mangaers of the big banks have been doing.

right now the CEO's of the big banks are playing the american people as chumps. its time that we show them they are the chumps and hit them where it will hurt them the most. In the ego, remove them from control of the banks and bust there political clout!

Also every member of congress that sits on the committees that over see the banks need to be removed, they are to close to the bankers!

and the government should start this process with AIG, CITI and BOA.

for anyone interested here is the interview with Simon Johnson

Edit to add. the bankers that recieve TARP funds have found a loop-hole for bonuses. The big boys still get their bonuses they just changed the name from Bonuses to "awards"



[edit on 2/23/2009 by Mercenary2007]

Originally posted by redhatty

Are you getting mad yet?

If people are not outraged at the implications of Karl's ticker, they need to re-read it again.

And again.

And again.

Until they get it.

In a nutshell this is the smoking gun people have been waiting for, validating what most suspected all along.

That the money for these bailouts that you and I and our great great grandchildren will pay in the form of tax dollars did not go to America, but to foreign investors (read, another nation -- specifically China in this instance). Already, 150billion to 250billion of American Taxpayer money was given to AIG, where it has simply vanished into a black hole.

Now AIG is reported to want billions more.

Guess who gets to pick up the tab again? And just where exactly where will this money go? Where do you think it will go this time? How long can we prop up this zombie? Why are we doing it?

In hindsight, it's fits pretty well and should have been investigated prior by everyone. There was zero transparency (imagine selling this bailout to the American taxpayer, whom none of the money goes to) in this bailout.

DeMint and Sherman rumbling about how this money is going to foreign investors. Lack of MSM digging into the truth. Closed session congress meetings. Clinton visiting China begging them to continue buying T-Bills (ie, buying our debt). Start connecting the dots and it becomes displeasing to say the least.

If this proves true and begins to gain momentum, can the average US citizen whose voice still counts finally bring out the pitchforks and torches and demand answers and retribution? It means our government as a whole has failed to protect the citizens against enemies foreign and domestic.

If another nation has stolen ~150billion to ~250billion of our nations wealth and succumbed to blackmail for China to buy our debt, it's time for the American people to use their God given rights, written in black and white, to remove said government.