Barofsky On Treasury's AIG Stock Sale: "The 'AIG Bailout Worked' Mantra Is Dangerous, Geithner Is Not Being Honest'

Former SIGTARP Neil Barofsky discussing the AIG bailout, Sep., 11, 2012.

'It's a fundamental question of disclosure, and more important, honesty...'

The NY Fed also allowed Goldman et al. to keep $35B in collateral on the $62B in CDO's (face value) for which they paid the market price (at the time $27B).  In other words, they may have made a "profit" on the $27B they paid for the CDO's, but AIG had already effectively spotted them $35B in unrecovered collateral towards the purchase price.

Regardless, the banks still got tens of billions in taxpayer protection on the decline in the value of those CDO's.  Clearly another Geithner/Fed "success."

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See this table from Pro Publica:

Comments

[Cheyenne]

Is the Bloomberg airhead reading from a cue card when he says "but taxpayers made a profit on the AIG bailout" 10 times in a row, or is his parrot-like delivery the result of breeding? Doesn't Bloomberg teach its puppets to read? The Treasury's own accounting of TARP shows AIG $35 billion in the red. What the hell is this guy yammering on about?

[DailyBail]

He continues to combine the figures from the 2 distinct bailouts - one from the Bernank and the other from Geithner/Paulson.

[DailyBail]

Here's Barofsky with former SEC Chair Arthur Levitt

http://media.bloomberg.com/bb/avfile/News/Surveillance/vkeNqKFI6r.M.mp3

[SKINFLINT]

Getting through halfway of Barofskys book. The whole foaming the runway part is just beyond words. Never mind the fact that none of these people will ever be charged with anything, the question is is why do this? Greed is not the answer at all. The fact that the Treasury and the Fed find themselves the only ones to be able to handle the situation because they know the intricacies just reeks of hubris and borders of megalomania. I get ill thinking how this will not end well for the average schlub.

[SKINFLINT]

For those of you who have not read Mr. Barofsky's book, please do so. Probably one of the most important books on history that you can read. Plus Mr. Barofsky explains the whole mess in a way that even a dumb ass such as myself can mostly understand. Thanks Cheyenne, for the link to the video on where money comes from. I showed to my high scholl kids. I should have taken a picture and posted it.