Con people
Con people for a few hundred bucks and you will get jail. Con people for billions and you will get paid!
(AIG employee)
picture: dunno source, via our lol builder. lol caption: Z00l00k
Washington Times: AIG followed bailout with $440K retreat
Top executives at failed insurance giant American International Group spent $440,000 at a company retreat just days after the federal government bailed out the company with $85 billion in taxpayer funds, according to documents revealed Tuesday at a Capitol Hill hearing.…Continued.
1!
*Insert talking point here*
*Insert standard angry riposte here*
*Insert party-line rhetoric response w/ reference to “crotchwafflers” and/or “douchenozzles” here*
*Insert Witty off-topic comment about opposing party’s presidential candidate here.*
“insert giggles and sadist toys descriptions along with several billion ways to use them correctly here.”
*Insert really long block of text filled with “facts” of why some politian is a babyeating, communist sympathising, terrorst here*
My mom has her entire retirement savings tied up with AIG. ALL of it. She’s 57.
I’d tell her to move it all to an IRA
I lost a third of my 403(b) before my former employer pulled all the accounts and set things into a small, locally-owned bank.
Then to find out about these executive spa trips…
Ten minutes alone in a room with the cameras turned off. That’s all I’m asking for.
My 401k is down 30% for the year… I’ll watch the door for you.
How come we don’t see small banks failing, just the big massive ones?
Because the fundamentals of the economy are sound. Small institutions know their customers and don’t have the wherewithal to play footsy with the market, so they are inherently more conservative.
Apart from the huge dollar figures involved, it is a small number of firms and individuals who have made the headlines.
Also, local banks were forbidden to risk money on these subprime loans. They were *regulated* and required to adhere to a set of logical limits on who they could loan to, and under what terms.
What really happened! I work at AIG and the media has spun this thing completely out of context. here it is from the new President and CEO.
October 8, 2008
The Honorable Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
Secretary of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20220
Dear Secretary Paulson:
I am writing to clarify an issue that was discussed at a hearing held yesterday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. At the hearing, a recent business event held by an AIG subsidiary was mischaracterized as an “Executive Retreat” held right after receiving the $85 billion loan credit facility from the New York Fed.
The event in question was held by one of AIG’s insurance subsidiaries for independent life insurance agents – not for AIG employees – who were top business producers for the company. The vast majority of the attendees were independent business people and their guests, not AIG employees. Indeed, of the more than 100 attendees, only 10 were employees of one of our insurance subsidiaries who attended to represent their company. Not a single corporate executive from AIG headquarters attended.
While this sort of gathering has been standard practice in our industry for many years and was planned many months before the Federal Reserve’s loan to AIG, we understand that our company is now facing very different challenges – and that we owe our employees and the American public new standards and approaches. Let me assure you that we are reevaluating the costs of all aspects of our operations in light of the new circumstances in which we are all operating.
Mr. Secretary, I want you to know that AIG is focused on doing what is necessary to address our capital structure, repay the Fed credit facility and emerge as a healthy global insurer. In the meantime, our insurance businesses continue to operate normally and satisfy the needs of our policy holders.
Sincerely,
Edward M. Liddy
You know, all those “Bad credit? No credit? We’ll still loan you money!” commercials?
Turns out, not really a good idea, akshully.
Don’t believe Obama’s HYPE!
Democrats caused this economic crisis by forcing subprime mortgages. Even Obama contributed by suing banks to force more subprime mortgages to low income families with bad credit.
“If that’s the case, McCain should look first to his campaign staffers as the cause of that debacle. One of them was Fannie Mae’s head of lobbying, and spread tens of millions of dollars around Washington in the form of lobbying contracts. A number of McCain staffers were on the receiving end of those contracts, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars each from the lenders to rep their interests. And McCain’s campaign manager served as president of a lobbying association that fought to protect Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from the sort of regulation that McCain is now proposing.”
WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 15, 2002
Fannie Mae Chairman and CEO, Franklin D. Raines today joined President Bush and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Mel Martinez, and other industry leaders and non-profit organizations, for a housing summit to promote the Administration’s proposal to expand minority homeownership.
Fannie Mae’s ten-point plan to help advance the Bush Administration’s homeownership proposals was included in the Blueprint for the American Dream document released by HUD today.
“Fannie Mae commends President Bush and HUD’s continued efforts to make minority homeownership a national priority through today’s housing summit,” said Raines. “As we know, homeownership builds stronger families, communities, and improves our quality of life. Through the expansion of minority homeownership, the Administration will advance housing equality in America.”
“The Blueprint for the American Dream that we unveiled today is the response to the `homeownership challenge’ President Bush issued in June to increase minority homeownership,” said HUD Secretary Mel Martinez. “Our partners, representing every segment of the affordable housing industry, are committed to working together to achieve the President’s goal of adding 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end of the decade.”
In his February State of the Union address President Bush called for “broader homeownership, especially among minorities.” In June, President Bush challenged both the public and private sector to be a partner in his crusade to create 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end of the decade.
Fannie Mae responded by committing $700 billion in home financing to 4.6 million minority households through 2009. This increases by 66 percent the specific pledge Fannie Mae made in 2000 to minority families through it’s American Dream Commitment plan to provide $420 billion for three million minority families.
“Through our ten-point plan, Fannie Mae has pledged itself to an extraordinary set of goals, both to increase homeownership over the course of this decade and to break barriers between underserved families,” Raines said. “We will reach out to all who have a stake in closing the housing gaps because together can we bring the American Dream of homeownership more in line with the American ideal of equality.”
For more information on Fannie Mae’s ten-point plan to increase minority homeownership visit the company’s Web site http://www.fanniemae.com. For information on all other Fannie Mae affordable mortgage products, consumers may call Fannie Mae’s Consumer Resource Center at 1-800-7FANNIE (1-800-732-6643), Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST.
Fannie Mae is a New York Stock Exchange company and the largest non-bank financial services company in the world. It operates pursuant to a federal charter and is the nation’s largest source of financing for home mortgages.
Fannie Mae is working to shrink the nation’s “homeownership gaps” through a $2 trillion “American Dream Commitment” to increase homeownership rates and serve 18 million targeted American families by the end of the decade. Since 1968, Fannie Mae has provided $4 trillion of mortgage financing for more than 45 million families.
More information about Fannie Mae can be found on the Internet at http://www.fanniemae.com.
Style Usage: Fannie Mae’s Board of Directors has authorized the company to operate as “Fannie Mae,” and the company’s stock is now listed on the NYSE as “Fannie Mae.” In order to facilitate clarity and avoid confusion, news organizations are asked to refer to the company exclusively as “Fannie Mae.”
WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 15, 2002
Fannie Mae Chairman and CEO, Franklin D. Raines today joined President Bush and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Mel Martinez, and other industry leaders and non-profit organizations, for a housing summit to promote the Administration’s proposal to expand minority homeownership.
Fannie Mae’s ten-point plan to help advance the Bush Administration’s homeownership proposals was included in the Blueprint for the American Dream document released by HUD today.
“Fannie Mae commends President Bush and HUD’s continued efforts to make minority homeownership a national priority through today’s housing summit,” said Raines. “As we know, homeownership builds stronger families, communities, and improves our quality of life. Through the expansion of minority homeownership, the Administration will advance housing equality in America.”
“The Blueprint for the American Dream that we unveiled today is the response to the `homeownership challenge’ President Bush issued in June to increase minority homeownership,” said HUD Secretary Mel Martinez. “Our partners, representing every segment of the affordable housing industry, are committed to working together to achieve the President’s goal of adding 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end of the decade.”
In his February State of the Union address President Bush called for “broader homeownership, especially among minorities.” In June, President Bush challenged both the public and private sector to be a partner in his crusade to create 5.5 million new minority homeowners by the end of the decade.
Fannie Mae responded by committing $700 billion in home financing to 4.6 million minority households through 2009. This increases by 66 percent the specific pledge Fannie Mae made in 2000 to minority families through it’s American Dream Commitment plan to provide $420 billion for three million minority families.
“Through our ten-point plan, Fannie Mae has pledged itself to an extraordinary set of goals, both to increase homeownership over the course of this decade and to break barriers between underserved families,” Raines said. “We will reach out to all who have a stake in closing the housing gaps because together can we bring the American Dream of homeownership more in line with the American ideal of equality.”
For more information on Fannie Mae’s ten-point plan to increase minority homeownership visit the company’s Web site http://www.fanniemae.com. For information on all other Fannie Mae affordable mortgage products, consumers may call Fannie Mae’s Consumer Resource Center at 1-800-7FANNIE (1-800-732-6643), Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST.
Fannie Mae is a New York Stock Exchange company and the largest non-bank financial services company in the world. It operates pursuant to a federal charter and is the nation’s largest source of financing for home mortgages.
Fannie Mae is working to shrink the nation’s “homeownership gaps” through a $2 trillion “American Dream Commitment” to increase homeownership rates and serve 18 million targeted American families by the end of the decade. Since 1968, Fannie Mae has provided $4 trillion of mortgage financing for more than 45 million families.
Related to this article, I heard a sound byte about what exactly “expanded home ownership means. Bush said that not only should more people be able to buy houses that couldn’t before, they should also be able to have a nice house, not just a cheap starter house. I am trying to find the clip to post here. Bush and his policies had much to do with this crisis. From his own words, as shown above.
sorry for double posts, pk was eating them.
Yeah . . . and Raines fiddled with the books at Fannie so he would qualify for millions in bonuses. He left having made $92 million in total.
This may have changed, but last I heard Raines was one of Obie’s chief economic advisors. I’m sure you also know that BHO was the recipient of the second-largest campaign donations from Fannie, after Senator Chris Dodd (D, Mass), who is chair of the senate Banking Committee–and who was in charge of the “investigation” of what has gone on here.
Can you say “conflict of interest”?
Re: Matrix’s post above, Georgia State Senator Vincent Fort, who is a Communist in everything but name, did the same at state level, introducing and passing legislation which prohibited “discrimination” against so-called buyers who really couldn’t afford to own a house.
We were years ahead of this curve, tho not necessarily in a good way. There was a compromise of sorts, as large lenders threatened to cease operations in the state. I suspect the same happened elsewhere, so the Feds stepped in.
Remember the Third Great Lie: “We’re from the gummint, we’re here to he’p you.”
Obama sounded the alarm on subprimes
True
As the U.S. and world economic systems continue to falter, both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama claim to have seen the crisis coming to some degree, and tried to head it off.
McCain has cited his endorsement of legislation in 2006 that would have reined in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac somewhat. And at the second presidential debate, Obama cited a letter he wrote to federal officials “two years ago.”
“Understand that the biggest problem in this whole process was the deregulation of the financial system,” Obama said during the Oct. 7, 2008 debate. “Senator McCain, as recently as March, bragged about the fact that he is a deregulator. On the other hand, two years ago, I said that we’ve got a subprime lending crisis that has to be dealt with.
“I wrote to (Treasury) Secretary (Henry) Paulson, I wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman (Ben) Bernanke, and told them this is something we have to deal with, and nobody did anything about it.”
The last sentence appeared to refer to this letter that Obama sent to Paulson and Bernanke on March 22, 2007.
Obama’s comments in the debate suggest the letter warned about the then-looming subprime lending crisis and its potential impact on the wider economy.
So let’s check the text.
“There is grave concern in low-income communities about a potential coming wave of foreclosures,” he wrote. “We cannot sit on the sidelines while increasing numbers of American families face the risk of losing their homes.”
He went on to suggest the two officials convene a homeownership-preservation summit where banks, investors, regulators and consumers could forge a plan to stave off foreclosures.
“Rampant foreclosures are in nobody’s interest… There is an opportunity here to bring different interests together in the best interests of American homeowners and the American economy,” he wrote.
So yes, Obama characterized the letter accurately. In it, he not only called for action to head off the unraveling of the subprime mortgage market, but also warned about its impact on the nation’s economy. He sent the letter about 18 months ago, a time frame for which “two years” is a fair estimate. We find his claim to be True.
I listen to folks like Shaun Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O’Reilly, to get an idea of what beliefs are being injected into peoples minds.
It is interesting to read these words come back out of peoples mouths and fingertips almost verbatim.
These radio/tv pundits and their writers are masters at getting people to believe things through repetition and easy-to-understand metaphors.
And the other 85% of the media are the same, only they inject Democratic Party talking points.
It probably seems that way, but the reality is that you’re so far to the right the vast majority of the mainstream media is ‘left’ of you.
(Similarly, my ideology is far to the left; the MSM appears right-of-center to me. The difference, of course, is that I am aware of this illusion. See my post below when it eventually appears.)
Please tell me where I can get some of that liberal media. I live in Massachusetts and I am sick to DEATH of having to listen to Rush, Howie and Bill-O. You would think that being in a “Blue” state would mean you could turn on a radio without having to listen those guys say nothing but hateful rhetoric about me. I jsut don’t know how you can qualify a figure like 85%. I only know 1 radio station that is ‘liberal” and I can’t get it here. I know there are a couple shows on cable that have been called liberal because they wont stop pointing out the lies of the current administration and it’s close ties with the Saudis etc. etc. That just means they are paying attention.
Try CNN, ABC,CBS, NBC…..
PBS…
The only one named so far that’s even slightly left of center. Anyone who thinks that CNN, ABC, CBS, or NBC are ‘left wing’ has no IDEA what left wing actually is. Those networks are all center-right. You guys have tried very hard to redefine the political spectrum, but center isn’t left-wing yet.
O_o…
That made sense, are you feeling well?
CNN is owned an operated by a conservative and plays to the “right” all night long. Just because is seems less conservative than, let’s say, Ann Coulter, does not make it Liberal. As far as I can tell there is about 1 hour a week that rates as completely objective.
If Rupert Murdock is involved, it’s not ‘liberal” by any stretch of the imagination.
If Disney is involved, it is not “objective” by any stretch of the imagination.;
ABC is generally incompetent and relies on local broadcasting which, even in Boston is heavily “conservative”.
Ultimately, though, I think you need to consider the fact that “radical right” is not the same as conservative in the same way that “radical left” is not the same as liberal. In fact most people who live a centrist or even vaguely leftish lifestyle are, in fact, conservative in the very definition of the word. The rabidly “Christian” or heavily “conservative right” are masters of misnomers and have chosen to label white as black and muzak as jazz. What can possibly be fiscally conservative about spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars to teach “nothing” and call it a sex ed plan.
Who could give HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars to the oil companies while they are making record profits and call it a tax cut?
Who could freak out that you might destroy a clump of cells that you would need to use a microscope to see and proclaim it “murder” but not have a problem with 12 police officers using 4 tasers and several nightsticks to “restrain” an innocent man TO DEATH and call it justifiable use of protection?
KillerRabbit, I think you must be so far “right” of center (reasonable) that you might think that Michell Bachmann is somehow near the “center”.
I’ve heard on several occasions that if you want an unbiased opinion and–dare I say it–the truth, watch the BBC.
That resort they went to is in my town. The Bushies have been there as well. Coincidence? I think not.
*sigh* Lame
I worked for an AIG insurance company in San Francisco in the 1970s. Most of the employees thought that it was basically a front for organized crime to launder money. Must say though that it made money when Hank Greenburg was in his prime. I can’t fathom their self-destructive behavior — both in the meltdown and the spa trip. Must be their over-weaning sense of entitlement and omniscience coming to the fore . . .
So everyone has their hands dirty… big deal. Didn’t you all see this coming? It’s all one big game of pretend. Invest all you want, you can’t eat your money. It’s only worth as much as we agree it is. Otherwise, it’s worthless.
Y’know, I think once you get beyond a million, numbers just become imaginary.
Must be all that new math…..
My middle finger: let me show you it.
“If you rob a man of his money, you’re a thief. Steal a state, and you’re a prince.” -Unk.
Just a matter of degree . . .
so true
Why isn’t the government fining these people and taking their bonuses ? Really ?
From my post above: ” I’m sure you also know that BHO was the recipient of the second-largest campaign donations from Fannie [Mae], after Senator Chris Dodd (D, Mass), who is chair of the senate Banking Committee–and who was in charge of the “investigation” of what has gone on here.
Can you say “conflict of interest”?”
Because these are the people who financed the campaigns of the people who let them screw us. Manus Manum Lavat.
10/10 4 truth.10/10 4 lolness. 10/10 4 long comments. cats, however, 0/10.
The Great Depression is upon us! Few Americans realize that by trusting us, a whole country was bankrupted – Iceland is bankrupt! We did it! Worse than using guns, We, the proud, noble, dignified, just, honest, fair-minded, worthy American people, LIED! and cost these people their COUNTRY for trusting us! If China squashes us like a bug, we can hardly complain, and China holds enough of our money, if they dump it, we will be sent to economic Hell for decades! Our ass-kicking is not over! We offended our best allies with lies and subterfuge! When this is done, we will be lucky to be able to buy a gallon of gasoline for 16.00 Euros, NOT dollars on the barrel head. We see tent-cities of poor people rising as we speak, and you can expect huge religious communes, set up for survival under their own laws to rise up soon. Our streets will fill with the hopeless defenseless folk from the apartments and condos, looking for food and work, and our jails will seem like gentle health spas compared to their street life! To prevent ANARCHY we must be gentle and giving, and provide for those among us suffering most – otherwise, our once great nation will perish in anarchy and disorder and a dog eat dog lifestyle will prevail.