Why This Ex-AIG Exec Is Protesting The Treasury's Backdoor 'AIG Bailout'

[ihavenobias]

NOTE: If you agree that we should get our money back, http://act.boldprogressives.org/cms/sign/goldmangiveitback/?source=huffpo1|sign this petition>!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/why-this-ex-aig-exec-is-p_b_605434.html|Why This Ex-AIG Exec Is Protesting Treasury's Backdoor "AIG Bailout">
By RJ Eskow
Huffington Post

Life can only be understood backward, said Kierkegaard, but it has to be lived forward. That's the only explanation I can offer for the strange turn of events that led to me becoming an AIG executive, then a progressive writer/blogger, and to my plans to speak tomorrow at a Treasury Department protest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfU4pu7WHW4|organized by my friend Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks>. (Wednesday, 1:30 PM, 15th and Philadelphia, Washington.) What are we protesting? The government bailout of Goldman Sachs and other bankers that was orchestrated by Timothy Geithner's New York Federal Reserve and paid for by taxpayer money funneled through ... AIG.

Cenk and I are here in Washington for the America's Future Now conference organized by Campaign for America's Future (where I am a Fellow), and CAF is supporting and participating in the demonstration. As for that AIG career ... it was something I didn't plan for or anticipate after having been a rock musician, a freelance journalist, a computer guy (there was no word for it back then, exactly), a financial and data analyst, and then a health care technical expert. But AIG bought the health care company I worked for in 1986, and soon I was designing benefit plans, managing nurses and doctors, and then consulting in health policy in the US and a number of foreign countries.

I'd always been a good progressive, and I was a technical expert when I was hired by AIG. I had worked in the HMO industry before that but - hard as it is to believe now - the HMO industry was filled with liberals and social idealists back then. They had genuinely believed that health maintenance organizations could be designed with incentives to keep people healthy through preventive care. That was before the financial guys took over...

But why did I say yes when Cenk asked me to speak there tomorrow (along with Cenk and http://www.samsedershow.com/|Sam Seder>, among others?) Here's why: first and foremost because I'm an American citizen. Goldman Sachs screwed us: They received $12.9 billion in taxpayer money as a "counterparty" for monies allegedly owed to them by AIG (more about that "allegedly" shortly.) They reported $13.4 billion in profits last year. See any connection between those figures?

Then they paid themselves fat, fat bonuses for having a banner year. And why not? They did have a banner year ... by playing us for suckers. Cenk's right: Treasury must demand that they give the money back...

[midnight]

1. I do see the connection, and I'm still waiting for the banks to lend the money they were given.

The reason they were given this money was to circulate it on to main street, and not reward themselves.


Goldman Sachs screwed us: They received $12.9 billion in taxpayer money as a "counterparty" for monies allegedly owed to them by AIG (more about that "allegedly" shortly.) They reported $13.4 billion in profits last year. See any connection between those figures?

[libodem]

2. Same intensity

as Israel shelling Gaza for the last month of the Bush administration, ol' Bunnypants was telling the congress they HAD to bail out the banks, to make sure they looted the rest of the treasury, before Cheney left to go hang upside down in an undisclosed location. Fat cat bastards.

GIVE US BACK OUR MONEY!!!!!!!

[Kajsa]

3. Done!

K&R

[jgraz]

4. Just one more item in the ever-growing list of indictable offenses from GoldSacks.

Of course, we'd need a Justice Department with actual respect for the law.

[WillyT]

5. HUGE K & R !!!

:kick:

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. These banks were * close to agreeing on $0.40 on the $1 when little Timmeh Geithner stepped in

Taxpayers > AIG > banks at $1 on the $1 on their side bets per Geithner's 'reoffer'.

Banks = bonuses. "We paid back TARP!" Yeah, with taxpayer money funneled through AIG.

AIG = debt to taxpayers they will NEVER pay back.

Good on him for standing up.

K&R

[Go2Peace]

7. Bill Black talked about this on NPR. They didn't make a profit, they changed the accounting

and then stole the money. Amazing they are not being called on it.

[Angry Dragon]

8. kick

[Enthusiast]

9. How does this little act of malfeasance

fly under the radar with the M$M? Why were these "bailouts" given with no accountability required? And how does Geithner remain in his position if he orchestrated this? Why would our president continue to give Geithner his blessing after such an egregious betrayal of trust?

[Turborama]

10. K&R n/t

[CherylK]

11. K & R!!!

:kick: