How does this not get your blood boiling? Henry Paulson oversees the $85 Billion loan (up to $123 now, btw) to AIG. What does AIG do with that money?

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...&refer=home

 

As much as $37 billion from federal bailout loans to American International Group Inc. has gone to investment banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the firm Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson used to run.

 

``It was the biggest crisis ever -- if you're an investment bank,'' said Joshua Rosner, a managing director at investment research firm Graham Fisher & Co. in New York. ``We didn't just save AIG. We saved the counterparties, the banks. It's true that it would have been a disaster, but it would have been a disaster for them.''

 

Paulson said Sept. 16 that he talked with lawmakers about AIG and on Sept. 17 endorsed the AIG financing package. The Fed appointed a member of Goldman's board, Edward Liddy, to run AIG, replacing Robert Willumstad. Liddy resigned Sept. 26 from Goldman's board.

 

 

AIG has been helping firms lay off their financial risk for years by writing swap contracts, or transactions in which two parties enter into an agreement in which one agrees to assume the other's risk. Joseph Cassano, the former head of AIG's financial products unit, co-founded it in 1987 and turned it into a business providing financial guarantees on more than $500 billion of assets at year end, including $61.4 billion in securities tied to subprime mortgages.

 

Paulson last week hired former Goldman colleague Edward C. Forst to advise him on the government's $700 billion rescue plan. Forst left Goldman Sachs in June to become executive vice president at Harvard University.

 

 

How are people not livid about this? Our tax dollars went directly to Goldman and the disgustingly rich hedge funds to make them even richer, via AIG. It's almost like the level of corruption going on right now is so extreme and so obvious, that people just don't think it's true.

 

I don't usually like Jim Cramer, but he was a former hedge fund manager (also another former Goldman boy) and does a good job of explaining some of this about the hedge funds:

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27218295

It's really all so frustrating and ugly that I don't have the words.

I despise the bailout, but any Treasury Secretary is going to be the former head of some Wall Street firm, and any bailout is going to benefit such a firm.

Add to that the fact that the entire Fed Board is composed of bankers looking after the interests of...banks!

Neither of parties are looking out for 99.9% of Americans . Our government has been brought out by corporate interests a long time ago .

Not a shock, sadly...

 

Goldman Sachs has benefited the most from this crisis, as many of their competitors have gone under in the process.

But, but, we need to do SOMETHING to save our economy!!!!! We need another Bailout!!!

 

 

Yes, even with this going on, both Obama & McCain want to throw more money into this system. They want you to believe that this will somehow help you as they make these guys richer and devalue the little money you have even more.

 

We all know (I hope) how corrupt this administration and the Congress is. Now if you decide to vote for a Republican or a Democrat for President, don't complain when they give away more and more money until this country collapses. You have your chance to at least try to vote for people who aren't a part of this system.

I don't think it's ALL corruption, at least in Congress. Part of it is that Senators and Reps want to be seen as at least doing SOMETHING, otherwise they are afraid it will jeopardize their jobs the next time around. However, yes, I am sure that business and financial lobbies were knocking down the doors of various influential members of Congress leading up to this debate.

 

I have said for some time that I do not agree with the bailout plan. However, it's unfortunately too late to do anything except vote out people that voted for the bill if they represent you, and you were against this. I don't fault Obama or McCain all that much for voting for this plan, again mostly because it would be just as bad for either if they had not made an effort to fix the crisis. Unfortunately it most likely won't help the economy all that much.

I don't think it's ALL corruption, at least in Congress. Part of it is that Senators and Reps want to be seen as at least doing SOMETHING, otherwise they are afraid it will jeopardize their jobs the next time around. However, yes, I am sure that business and financial lobbies were knocking down the doors of various influential members of Congress leading up to this debate.

 

I have said for some time that I do not agree with the bailout plan. However, it's unfortunately too late to do anything except vote out people that voted for the bill if they represent you, and you were against this. I don't fault Obama or McCain all that much for voting for this plan, again mostly because it would be just as bad for either if they had not made an effort to fix the crisis. Unfortunately it most likely won't help the economy all that much.

There you go, if it would have been "just as bad", then why vote for it? It's not really gonna win or lose either of them the election. But if either of them either understood the problem and/or cared about us, they would've voted against it, because even if it "would be just as bad" for them, it is much worse for us. It would be nice to have leaders that cared about that or were smart enough to understand that they cannot "fix the crisis".

Unfortunately I am not privy to the thought processes that went into their votes. That would certainly clear things up.