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(sorry - to NOT disclose info) about which banks got the AIG bailout money. Huh...
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/20.../?ref=business
Does the Fed think that the American Public would be upset if they found out that the vast majority of the $180 billion we poured into AIG went into bailing out European banks that used AIG's credit default swaps as reserves for their banking system? Would we Americans be pissed that we paid $180 billion to bail out the Europeans for their lack of financial oversight?
Yeah, we'd be pissed...
But this is nothing new. This story is more about the complete incompetence of the financial media to explain what was going on than it is about an embarrassing situaton for The Fed. It was clear at the time that this is where the AIG money was going. The media were just too clueless to figure it out until now.
The French and Germans kept telling the US that we had to fix AIG or the Euro would fail, and the entire world financial system would go under. And they were probably right.
(And just so that we're clear - although it happened in 2008, this WAS Geitner's doing. He was the chaiman of the NY Fed which oversaw all the AIG mess.).
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/20.../?ref=business
Does the Fed think that the American Public would be upset if they found out that the vast majority of the $180 billion we poured into AIG went into bailing out European banks that used AIG's credit default swaps as reserves for their banking system? Would we Americans be pissed that we paid $180 billion to bail out the Europeans for their lack of financial oversight?
Yeah, we'd be pissed...
But this is nothing new. This story is more about the complete incompetence of the financial media to explain what was going on than it is about an embarrassing situaton for The Fed. It was clear at the time that this is where the AIG money was going. The media were just too clueless to figure it out until now.
The French and Germans kept telling the US that we had to fix AIG or the Euro would fail, and the entire world financial system would go under. And they were probably right.
(And just so that we're clear - although it happened in 2008, this WAS Geitner's doing. He was the chaiman of the NY Fed which oversaw all the AIG mess.).