This financial crisis is torture to these people. Look, there was no leadership in the country. Everything was being deregulated wherever the Republicans could find a reason to do so and there was a lot of impetus coming from the White House to 'turn loose the hounds of hell' in order to buoy an economy.
Who is DIRECTLY responsible? Easy one.
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This undated photo provided by Freddie Mac shows David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac. (AP / Freddie Mac)
Let's put this into context. The Republicans had no way of producing an economy. They never have. Even Reagan simply deregulated to provide an 'economic glut' that people would love him for. Bush, Jr. did the same thing, only this time, he was taking the government apart. He was deregulating past any 'reason.' George W. Bush and his administration IS DIRECTLY responsible for the economic ruin of the USA under 8 years of exploitive deregulation.
And this entire AIG thing. It was all handled "W"rong. AIG was victimized and used as insurance to gambling.
The Bush White House drained EVERY reserve of any monetary policy that was ever a part of the USA Treasury or any government operating authority. There was even something about the airlines and their monetary reserve that was exploited to the point of ridiculous. But, I am not going to take the time to get all the 'information' on this entry. The FACTS are true, but, to gather all the information of how every USA reserve within the government was drained is another 'Saturday Night' venue.
As far as 'Freddie Mac' and 'Fannie Mae,' they are government controlled. The rules were different and they were never intended to be entities other than what they were, REGARDLESS, of how Republicans thought they should be 'profitable.' Reagan thought the Space Shuttle should be making money as well with launches every two weeks and as a result we lost astronauts and space ships in a grossly unrealistic and pressured culture within NASA.
So much for having the officers of these particular institutions feeling completely responsible. It is not the case at all.
Just to set the record straight, the 'hate' speech has to stop. The 'business culture' that resulted in this disaster is horribly out of step with decency. That is the problem. Tim Geithner is working on changing all that.
This is the way I see the issue surrounding AIG.
To begin, there is no 'private entity' that can insure major investment banks. The ONLY entity that can do that are governments. There was absolutely no reasonable way AIG could provide the protections to all those banks while insuring them.
AIG was NOT the FDIC. It wasn't conducted like the FDIC and there in lies the problem. In order to attempt to 'handle' all their responsibilities 'at least on the books' they began to 'play' with concepts that would become the focus of the 'blame' for the failure of AIG.
THE FACT of the circumstances is that AIG was viewed by investment banks as 'back up' to disaster. The investment banks simply threw all caution to the wind, with the exception of Morgan, and they rolled the dice. Goldman Sachs was no different. The so called geniuses of the Board Room stopped being wise investment brokers and became gamblers. The reason they thought they could 'go there' was because their 'free wheeling' agendas were backed by AIG.
I still say, Paulson saw this coming and took over the Treasury.
At any rate, AIG should never have paid a dime. There is an understanding in contract law that all terms are binding under REASONABLE circumstances. AIG never 'contracted' with gamblers, they contracted to protect investment banks in REASONABLE conduct of business. The investment banks were NOT conducting themselves reasonably. They were taking 'high stake' gambles on financial tools that were spectulative and untried. AIG never contracted for that, but, with Paulson in Treasury crying that if AIG didn't 'pay up' the entire global economy would collapse, there was no saying, NO.
I'll go so far as to say AIG should file lawsuits against the companies they have 'saved' from risks 'outside' the venue of REASONABLE and get their monies back.
AIG in any 'reasonable' venue should never have been required to pay for such irresponsible 'game playing' by those banks.
AIG was not there to insure irresponsibility.
It was there to protect them should economic conditions IMPACT on them, NOT, if the banks themselves created an economic slide of which they would benefit by being paid off by AIG.
The truth of the matter is that AIG was scammed by the banks they were insuring. It was a fraudulent operation and Paulson 'leaned' on AIG with promises to 'bailout' AIG as it honored its contracts.
Bush and his administration, including what's his name, ... Don Evans... 'produced' an faux economic boom that exploded, not just burst, housing. All the rules to 'reasonable' conduct of business were removed by the Republicans and the games began.
Bush can say Wall Street was 'on a drunk' but HE was the enabler. I am quite confident Bush 'counted on' the banks losing their shirts with the 'idea' that AIG would 'save the day.' After all, Bushes when President, like to 'bailout' financial institutions. Under H.W. it was his son's S&L buddies with government monies from the FDIC. Under "W" is was the entire global economy, with monies that hadn't been printed yet.
By draining all the USA government reserves FIRST, he opened up the NECESSITY to what occurred in October and heated up the printing presses. It was easy for H.W. to ask the FDIC to step in. They were solvent and could easily appropriate funds out of their insurance funds. BUT. To bankrupt an entire global economy Bush had to drain the swamp. And he did. He drained every cash reserve in the USA and then turned on the printing presses.
Couple of gems, aren't they?
Well, at any rate. The dynamics to this mess belongs to ONE man and one man only. George W. Bush. He can hang his hat on it and take credit to nearly annihilating civilization in order to set countries against each other to faciliate war.
Well, Georgie. THE Neocon agenda didn't get off the ground this time and you actually had to leave office even with provisions under The Patriot Act.
I don't want any citizen of this country to ever harm themselves over damn money again. It is hideous. While currency is necessary for a country to 'tend' business, there is nothing valuable about it. Currency faciliates 'the ease' of economies, it is NOT life or economic strength all by itself. For a country to be valuable, it takes more than having Fort Knox full. It takes a populous to drive an economy. If we as a people seek to destroy others for the sake of revenge and political fervor, we aren't much of a people, now are we?
The USA will not regain its prominance and it will not obtain peace by demising its own people.
My sympathies to the family and friends of David Kellermann. Something went "W"rong, but, it sure wasn't anything he should have taken to heart as deeply as this.
