Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has launched a complete image makeover, according to Fox Business Network. Appearing in …
AIG
The Neverending Bailout: The U.S. Is Still Owed $133 Billion from Crisis Fund
If you thought the bank bailout that started in late 2008 was long gone, you would be far from wrong. The special investigator for TARP, the government fund that was created in the wake of the financial crisis, released a report …
Bailout Wonder: How the Government Turned a Profit on AIG
Remember the basket case that was AIG. The giant insurance company became known for everything that was wrong with Wall Street: unchecked risk-taking; complicated, unregulated derivatives; and, most importantly, huge, unearned bonuses.The cover of TIME carried the headline “AIG = WMD.” In order to save the company the government had to …
AIG Bailout Saved Goldman Billions, Or Not
The New York Times, it seems, can’t make up its mind on l’affaire Goldman and AIG. In the past week the Grey Lady has had dueling articles on whether Goldman would have or wouldn’t have lost billions if the giant insurer had failed back at the height of the financial crisis. On Saturday, Gretchen Morgenson wrote that newly released …
Why are we still discussing the causes of the financial crisis?
Here’s a question that might be worth asking. With both the House and the Senate zeroing in on passing a bill to overhaul the financial industry, why are we still so deeply enmeshed in debating the causes of the financial crisis in the first place?
I ask because as Congress enters what appears to be the final stretch of its …
The Big Dance for Bad Companies
In this competition, no one wants to be a #1 seed or a Cinderella story, or to be included in the first place. It’s a March Madness tournament in which the competitors stand out for their abilities to make customers mad.
Oddities of the Blackrock-AIG report
So far it appears the most noteworthy document of the 250,000 pages obtained by the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, which is holding a hearing on Wednesday on AIG’s government bailout, is a 44-page powerpoint presentation put together by bond firm Blackrock analyzing the insurer’s ability to negotiate haircuts on its …
Poor, poor Robert Benmosche
The news that AIG CEO Robert Benmosche is thinking of leaving (now he says he’s staying; see update below) because he’s sick of dealing with those mean, mean federal regulators—especially the ones who want to cap his and his employees’ pay—raised two conflicting thoughts:
1) The federal government isn’t very good at running …
AIG, Merrill, Lehman: If your company is tanking, is it riskier to stay or bail?
Yesterday was Keiro-no-hi in Japan, or Respect for the Elderly Day. It’s a national holiday, which means the press, too, gets a day off. The entire press corps of the entire country goes to the beach. With Obaachan and Ojiichan. It’s nice, isn’t it? Because it means that no matter what happens in the world, there is absolutely no news …
