Wall Street wants you to bail them out even more....

[Aegon_Targaryen]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topstocks/we-bailed-you-out-and-now-you-want-what/ar-BBkMp2m

Federal district court judges in Washington and New York initially dismissed both challenges. Their opinions noted, somewhat pointedly, that the Wall Street plaintiffs were not only unharmed but actually came out better off as a result of the government rescues. Yet both groups have now found a more sympathetic hearing a stone’s throw from the front gate of the White House, at a little-known brick courthouse called the U.S. Court of Claims.

There, Greenberg is asking the court to award him and other AIG shareholders at least $23 billion from the Treasury. He says that’s to compensate them for the 80 percent of AIG stock that the Federal Reserve demanded as a condition for its bailout. Judge Thomas Wheeler has repeatedly signaled his agreement with Greenberg. A decision is expected any day.

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

I still don't understand why that skunk isn't rotting in jail.

 

[Titus Andronicus]

There are a number of skunks in this case with Elliot Spitzer and Ben Bernanke being (interchangeably) the numbers 1 and 2 skunks.

Keep in mind that prior to the financial meltdown, Spitzer forced the board to fire Greenberg. This board was hardly "his" board ... as suggested in the linked article. In fact, most (somewhere in the 80-90% range) of the derivative contracts were obtained AFTER Greenberg was ousted and after the government had selected the new chairman.

The Fed was using AIG as a sort of slush fund for awhile, moving all sorts of questionable assets into and out of the company. They were acting like a bunch of cowboys for awhile somehow thinking they were saving the world, stopping evil-doers, and punishing evil deeds. In fact in this case, they were doing harm at every turn.

.........................................................................

This was a similar situation to Lehman in that had they simply filed for bankruptcy and let the various derivative positions go to maturity and then be closed out, the value would have been recovered.

AND as noted in the article, the Fed had no legal right to demand 80% of the stock in AIG. Bernanke actually testified that they did this on purpose to "punish" Greenberg ... something that he had zero legal right to do. We have an Attorney General for that.

I hope that Greenberg prevails.

............................

Note: At one point during the takeover process, even Harry Reid walked out announcing that whatever Bernanke decided to do, they were to leave his name out of it. He wanted nothing to do with this particular "Fix.'

 

[HawktimusPrime]

The whole situation is basically a big F job. Basically the Fed F'd Fannie Mae, and even though Fannie Mae isn't going to starve anytime soon, they are pissy about it.
Lots of BS on all sides of this.

 

[Nat Algren]

'too big to jail'