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Ear to the Ground

Goldman’s Hand in AIG’s Collapse

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Posted on Feb 6, 2010
Blankfein
AP / Mark Lennihan

Lloyd Blankfein, right, CEO of Goldman Sachs during the recently revealed standoff, leaves the New York Stock Exchange after attending a panel discussion in 2008.

Recently disclosed internal documents and an audio recording regarding a 2008 securities standoff between Goldman Sachs and insurance giant AIG appear to be the smoking guns necessary to pinpoint Goldman’s culpability in the mortgage meltdown and the collapse of AIG. —JCL

The New York Times:

Billions of dollars were at stake when 21 executives of Goldman Sachs and the American International Group convened a conference call on Jan. 28, 2008, to try to resolve a rancorous dispute that had been escalating for months.

A.I.G. had long insured complex mortgage securities owned by Goldman and other firms against possible defaults. With the housing crisis deepening, A.I.G., once the world’s biggest insurer, had already paid Goldman $2 billion to cover losses the bank said it might suffer.

A.I.G. executives wanted some of its money back, insisting that Goldman — like a homeowner overestimating the damages in a storm to get a bigger insurance payment — had inflated the potential losses. Goldman countered that it was owed even more, while also resisting consulting with third parties to help estimate a value for the securities.

After more than an hour of debate, the two sides on the call signed off with nothing settled, according to internal A.I.G. documents and an audio recording reviewed by The New York Times.

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By John, February 7, 2010 at 1:13 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

So Shady!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30YW3wgRvyI

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By msgmi, February 7, 2010 at 10:07 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Goldie-sacks saw a wounded AIG and went for the jugular knowing that Main Street would be fleeced through the efforts of Capital (sic) Hill. DOJ could charge Goldie with a RICO count, but has no will to do so.

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LostHills's avatar

By LostHills, February 7, 2010 at 9:29 am Link to this comment

Once upon a time, criminals were arrested and sent to prison… Where’s Elliot
Ness when you need him?

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thebeerdoctor's avatar

By thebeerdoctor, February 7, 2010 at 6:00 am Link to this comment

So I gather it was just overblown rhetoric when Matt Taibbi described Goldman Sachs as “a giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its funnel into anything that smells like money.”?
Apparently not.

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Ouroborus's avatar

By Ouroborus, February 7, 2010 at 4:24 am Link to this comment

There are three other clips in the 4 part series of
interviews with Cohen that are also very revealing.
It makes me even more pessimistic about the future of
our democracy; there is so much important stuff we
don’t know. Why?

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Ouroborus's avatar

By Ouroborus, February 7, 2010 at 3:53 am Link to this comment

Only ever so slightly off topic, but a clear picture of
why nothing is being done by Obama or anybody else in
the government regarding the financial collapse; we’ve
been snookered. IMO, this is a must see from The Real
News Network;

http://tinyurl.com/ybqnhyq

It answers a lot of questions…

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G.Anderson's avatar

By G.Anderson, February 6, 2010 at 11:28 pm Link to this comment

Surprise, Surprise…Some men rob you with a gun, and some with a fountain pen.

and sometines, laws, and government, make it easy when someone steals a whole country, after that their only concern is keeping in control of those who make the laws…..

So far that’s worked.

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By Inherit The Wind, February 6, 2010 at 7:33 pm Link to this comment

Let’s see if we’ve got this straight:

Goldman bought insurance from AIG against potential loss of investments.

But Goldman DELIBERATELY purchased securities that were overvalued they felt would go DOWN so they could collect the AIG insurance.

On the street, the cops call this insurance fraud.  Why are these Goldmaan execs still running around loose? (Rhetorical question.)

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By Bat Guano, February 6, 2010 at 6:18 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Lloyd Blankfein could be found with a smoking gun in his hand standing over the dead body of the middle class and nothing will be done.

These scumbags write the laws and then break them just to add insult to injury.

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By Hammond Eggs, February 6, 2010 at 6:11 pm Link to this comment

Goldman Saxophone, AIG (The American Institute of Graft), Chucky Chase, Bank of “Murka, Merrill Lynchmob . . . all these “asshole scumbags”, as glider calls them, will destroy this country.  These thieves have declared “manifest destiny” on the middle class.  They’re the cavalry and we’re the injuns and guess who gets wiped out.

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By glider, February 6, 2010 at 5:55 pm Link to this comment

Massive racketeering with the ultimate goal of Government Saches being to steal tens of billions of dollars from the American middle class with their installed double agent Hank Paulson.  Concerned about the financial crisis my ass.  That was their plan coming to fruition.  And our f**king “Representatives” in Congress and the Executive Branch when along with the scam professing to have to “hold their noses”.  Poor guys!  Asshole scumbags all of them.

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