In Ratigan's final CNBC broadcast from the floor of the NYSE he reported on what he called "an important story developing" that Goldman Sachs and "a variety of European banks", in his assessment and that of his guests, essentially "perpetrated securities fraud" and an "insurance fraud scam" against AIG—and, by extension, the government and taxpayers funding that insurance company's "bailout"—by insuring their questionable investment vehicles and, upon their devaluation, making claims on them to be paid by AIG "at 100 cents on the dollar" despite all of the markdowns "being forced upon every other" entity including the government, banks, shareholders, bond holders, taxpayers and homeowners.
"I think that it should be a bigger political issue than whether somebody bought an airplane... Forget the private jets, forget who got a million dollar bonus. Fifty billion dollars", he emphasized, minimizing what he saw as populist side issues to "the real question" of how "government policy makers" are to deal with the "problems of contract law" inherent in the agreements of businesses receiving government assistance during the financial crisis.
"The banks are being asked to take 'haircuts' on their toxic assets, why are the Goldmans and the Deutsche Banks of the world not being asked to take haircuts on their toxic credit default swaps? It's a real question. I will continue to pursue it for sure, I hope others will as well." Ratigan praised New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's subpoena of AIG to determine the bank payouts as "legitimate inquiry" and looked forward to "a body of lawmakers in Washington D.C. who are going to ask, it appears, some of the same questions that I'm asking."
May 2, 2009
Dylan Ratigan, Goldman Sachs, Fraud, Scam - Taxpayers Lose
Editor's Note: I always enjoyed watching Dylan. But on more than one occassion, I said he was going to get canned for being too honest. And canned he was. Here's the scoop according to Wikipedia. If it were that false or off the mark, Goldman Sachs and others would have already sued to have it removed. Three cheers for Dylan. Its just a shame Goldman Sachs and General Electric . . . both Warren Buffet companies, have the power to control the media, the government . . . and our lives.
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With Barney Frank and Christ Dodd in power, not much is going happen with this. Not that the Republicans would be any better.
ReplyDeleteThe AIG bail out is so far the biggest theft of tax payer money in United States history. Those CDOs should have been paid at 30 cents on a dollar at best. Goldman knew that AIG did not have the capital if the asset prices they were protecting went south.
The sad part is that it's not over yet. This is simply crazy.
Listen to Dylan: http://www.fedupusa.info/Dylan_Ratigan_Interview
ReplyDeleteExactly what anon said.
ReplyDeleteWith the BofA/Merrill mess, Cuomo discovered that Merrill bonuses were not the largest issue but the alleged securities fraud committed by Bernanke, Paulson, and Lewis. Lewis is likely being hung out to dry or taking a fall for Bernaulson - meanwhile, Goldman is 1/3 of the equation and we'd do ourselves well to keep that in mind.
But if you think Cuomo's case is going to go anywhere, you have to keep in mind that he passed it off to Frank and Dodd. Thankfully, Elizabeth Warren will also take over from here. She's really the only one who might be able to take this to a level that could be considered "justice."
Here's to hoping no one takes her out along the way... I smell a scandal brewing if she gets even CLOSE to accusing Bernanke/Paulson of securities fraud.
Bizarre.