Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Dec 10, 2008
Black Hole AIG Needs Another $10 Billion

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/ar ... ers=aig,gs

After all the money AIG's had shoveled at it, why does it need another $10 billion? Because, as the Wall Street Journal reports, the money its gotten from the government are supposed to pay off its bad CDS bets -- essentially, the money went to retiring the underlying CDO --- but it's also stuck $10 billion on what were just bad bets, not necessarily designed to help clients manage risk.

CDS is Abrev. for Credit Default Swaps. So there are 62 trillion dollars out there waiting to come home to roost. It is a practice that was outlawed a hundred years ago because they caused the panic of 1907. But in their infinite wisdom the people who are now in charge of getting us out of this mess pushed hard to get the law changed so that CDS could be sold again.

As of last year, according to an industry group, there were not $62 million, not $62 billion, but $62 trillion worth of credit default swaps out there. That's more than four times as much as the GDP of the entire U.S. economy.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business ... 10-07.html

Not to panic
it is just money
and you know it says right on it
"In God We Trust"

I wonder what happen to my first response to this? I wrote a lengthy reply last evening and it should've been right here. maybe it's somewhere else if you posted this somewhere else.

anyhoo... there's a new scandal in the news. that's why they call it 'news'... it's new.

MSNBC Headline: (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28204628/)

<center>Charities count missing millions in Madoff case
Philanthropic groups hit hard by ex-Nasdaq chief's arrest on fraud charges</center>

"It may be the largest fraud in the history of Wall Street, authorities said. Madoff is charged with stealing as much as $50 billion, in part to cover a pattern of massive losses, even as he cultivated a reputation as a financial mastermind and prominent philanthropist."

The guilty in these cases seem to be coming to light. But the cost of lighting these truths is devastating to the collective conscience. As if there isn't enough trouble...

Lordy Cecil I hope I did not delete it. I don't think so or if I did I must have fucked up. I don't ever intend to delete anything again from this board not even my own posts. I am still bummed about my deleting everything a couple of months ago. Any way I appologize if I did please believe me it was unintentional if I did. I must be cracking up

Have you done a search for it on studio eight to see if you miss posted? Also what I have done a couple of times is hit the preview button, read my post and then forget to hit the submit button before I log out.

Yes I caught the news about the 50 billion. The wonder is that people had been reporting him to the SEC for like ten years and they never checked him out. What does that tell us about the SEC? The foxes guarding the chicken house, the pirates in charge of our financial system?

It got me thinking about something UU wrote somewhere. I have to find it and I will reference it here asap.

Here is the bit from UU I mentioned above. .

Somali pirates might have given us a more profitable, rational and peaceful eight years . . .


--UU

The first thing that crossed my mind when I read about Madoff and the 50 billion was "got dam it he's a Jew"

I am reminded of the Navajo saying

"He acts like he has no family" meaning a bad actor who brings shame to his people.

His sons are the ones to turn him in. Seems like he did a better job of teaching them ethics than his own parents did. I can't figure it out Cecil, I mean he confessed that it was all a lie. I heard a pundit say that those high flying financial cases are hard to prosecute. If he had denied it he might have been able to fight it. Maybe he is getting ready to cop an insanity plea.


It got me thinking about the stereotype of how shrewd Jews are about business. I loved my grandfather a kind man a devout Jew. But maybe not the best head for business.

He used to have a grocery store. It did not flourish. If someone came in with a loaf of bread under his arm and wanted to buy a quart of milk my grandfather would get pissed and, tell the guy to go buy the milk where you bought the bread

talk at you lateer

Preview then not post. I gave that some thought while I was writing about it to you. I, too, have done the same thing more times than I care to admit. Many I fine word (!) has gone down the proverbial rabbit hole because of that preview feature...

Yes. A Jewish businessman. What kind of Jew would do such a thing? (i say that in my best New York Jew accent) It's a crime! Billions and now more billions, missing. Where did these vast sums of money go? Certainly someplace or somewhere has all that money, but where? Where? I ask... Huge amounts that we're talking about, including this latest, does not fit under a mattress... no banks would be caught dead with this amount of stolen money... billions cannot be buried without a huge shovel... where would anyone get something like that? A huge shovel... it's unheard of. $$$Billions. That's thousands and thousands of millions. Who has that kinda cash? It's been stolen and it's been lost... and nobody says nothing. Why would they if they had $$$billions? I couldn't talk! I would be scared shitless. More money than my house could hold.. I'd have to put some of the extra millions in my shed, for chissakes. The smell of that much money would permeate the neighborhood. People would come 'round sniffin' for a treasure! Gawd, I can see them now - hundreds of people storming the house... tearing up the floors and walls, digging thru the foundation... anything to get at that money! You know how people are... especially about CASH! But the $$$Billions are lost... the charities must fold up. Charities that took care of people's needs.. fed them, clothed them, paid their utility bills... gone. The people are now more needy than ever before because of this man... $50Billion! It's a crime! It's a loss. It's crazy! May AIG or the Lehman Brothers took it. Now there's a possiblity. May I should contact the FBI and give them this clue. Will I get any reward money for that? Hell no. I'd be a squealer. And you know what squealers get when they're alone..? Lost! That's what happens to squealers. You won't catch me squealin' on AIG or those Lehman Brothers... they're New Yorkers, for chrissakes! El Mafio. You know what they do to squealers. You know what they do to people who KNOW. It's fucking crazy, truck! No wonder the $$Billions are lost!!! Who wants the New York mafioso after them? Not me. I better get lost. I've said too much. Shhhhh.....

Madoff Wall Street fraud threatens Jewish philanthropy

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1046187.html

Speaking of NY Jews. What's his face always gave me the squirms when attacked brooklyn for being a money grubbing Jew.

I don't know Cecil, something screwy about the story, like I said I heard a pundit say he was puzzled as to why Madoff confessed. And the question remains why did not the SEC do anything about it for ten years?

After the Wall Street crash when FDR came to power he picked Joe Kennedy JFK's father and the most notorious of Wall St operators to head the SEC figuring that he knew all the tricks of the trade. Maybe it is time for Ivan Boesky to head the SEC.

Yes it is a lot of money but how much money is 62 trillion dollars? They say it is out there 62 trillion dollars in bad bets, no assets to seize just 62 trillion dollars of IOU's owed to some very rich people. 62 trillion dollars how many mattresses would it take to hide that much money?

I don't know Cecil; I got my social security retirement check coming in every month. I got it made right? I mean there is no chance that next year I might get a little note in the mail that says "whoops sorry about that." I hardly loose any sleep over money anymore.

I never could understand the crash of 29. The factories were still there, the oil still in the ground, crops were still growing, fruit was still hanging on trees, iron ore was still in the mines, everything was still there yet nobody had any little green pieces of paper in their wallets to buy anything.

I guess were going to keep those printing presses at the US Mint running twenty four seven turning out pink thousand dollar bills.

Why the hell not. Remember that woman in Italy who was some kind of financial wizard. She used to post to litchicks. I remember you and her used to have esoteric economic discussions that were way over my head. Something about the economy of the past sixty years.

Well no big deal if you could break a Zimbabwe 100 billion dollar bill for me I could straighten the whole mess out right now

Here is a Jew accused of cheating Jewish organizations trying to help other Jews, they say, and of betraying the trust of Jews and violating the basic tenets of Jewish law. A Jew, they say, who seemed to exemplify the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes of the thieving Jewish banker.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/us/24 ... ml?_r=1&em

Maybe this had something to do with the clean bill of health he got from the SEC all those years despite the warnings and red flags they recieved about him.

Madoff Boasted of Close SEC Relationship, "My Niece Even Married One"

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStree ... 863&page=1

Earlier this week, Christopher Cox, the S.E.C. chairman, appeared to make a veiled reference to Mr. Swanson when he criticized earlier botched inquiries into the firm by the commission and said that an internal investigation would look at “all staff contact and relationships with the Madoff family and firm, and their impact, if any, on decisions by staff regarding the firm.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/busin ... wanson.htm