the whole idea of credit default swaps. It was not however after Elliott Spitzer had him removed as CEO, that AIG went wild with Credit Default Swaps. Thereafter AIG ceased becoming an underwriter of insurance and more like a money laundering scheme.
Somehow the honeymoon lives on with Obama.
Isn't Obama still "the man in charge", or does he get a free pass for the actions of his staff?
Apparently Geithner realizes the folly of trying to recoup the bonuses, he just hasn't figured out how to cover his ass. It looks like by the time he figures it out he will be adding to the unemployment numbers.
I have to disagree. The honeymoon is shakey. He has lost a fair amount of points in a very short time. His ratings are not much better than Bush in 2000 when you consider where he started.
I have to admit that even though I didn't like Obama, in my wildest dreams I never thought that I would have so much to gloat about so fast.
It seems that it is a stream on one thing after another. Tax cheat appointments, shifting standards on hiring lobbyists, keeping Gitmo open, his defending Bush's positions in the U.S. Supreme Court, we knew about bonus then we didn't, we approved bonuses but we are angry about it.
And this is just the start. The stories the news hasn't picked up - like the start of a trade war with Mexico, his hedging on nuclear power, the amount of waste in the first stimulus and budget, the eventual expense of cap and trade.
I rarely make bets about the future. But I am dying to see what his approval rating is in six months.
will be lower, in six months, than GW's were at the same point in his presidency. However, I seriously doubt that Obama's will ever get as low as Bush's were at the end of his term.
Cap and trade and other green initiatives can have a greater impact on the lives of people than any other law passed in the history of the United States.
In the early days of the transformed Court after the New Deal, the adopted a cumulative effect test to the commerce clause. If a person wanted to grow veggies in his back yard, the federal government could regulated because the cumulative effect of a million back yard gardners would have an impact on intertate commerce, which Congress could regulate.
Under that test, using green house emissions as something congress can control there is no limit. How often do you use your air conditioner, drive your car, turn on the heat, use your fire place.
It all depends on what Obama wants to do. If he gets ambitious, his popularity will drop like a lead balloon.
Also, it won't help if he releases someone from Gitmo and that guy blows up a U.S. city. That would look really bad.
picks...NOT! The prick picked VCU over UCLA in the 1st round. And he has the audacity to visit SoCal and be a guest on Leno....right in the middle of Bruin country.
At least today I was impressed with Edward Liddy the CEO of AIG. Here is a guy that was retired from a successful career as CEO of Allstate. He was pressed into service last June by the government after the AIG fallout. He takes $1 a year in salary, no stock options and no bonuses for any upside potential. He and his family have been the recipient of death threats. He is now the poster child of why NOT to answer the call of government service.
He handled himself professionally today in front of a congressional sub-committee. He takes the blame like anyone in leadership should take, except our govt officials, even though most if not all the shit happened before he joined AIG.
the whole idea of credit default swaps. It was not however after Elliott Spitzer had him removed as CEO, that AIG went wild with Credit Default Swaps. Thereafter AIG ceased becoming an underwriter of insurance and more like a money laundering scheme.
Bush or Obama? I don't blame either POTUS, I blame Congress for not dealing with the finer points & details of this mess. You have all those overpaid blatheirng suit-monkeys up there on the Hill and instead of being proactive, they rather react to events that should have been dealt with in the first place.
Before any of the money was given to AIG or even the automakers, there should have been a law enacted by Congress which essentially states that by accepting this bailout money, you are effectively bankrupt and thus, the laws governing bankruptcy would apply to them as well.
That way AIG could have forced the banks to take less on their insured mortgage paper losses, contracts could have been reformed and execs would not be getting their bonuses, etc.
You forget the biggest reason that didn't happen. THE UNIONS!!! Can you imagine the unions reaction to such a stipulation? Obama and the Dems owe their jobs to the unions and they are beholdant to them now.
Aside from the political impossibility of your idea, it is/was the best option available.
for the union's benefit. If not for the unions, bankruptcy reorganization would have happened long ago.
is purely contrived for it's populist diversionary benefits, removing the focus temporarily from where the REAL money is flowing.