AIG Ponzi
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:27 am
after reading this article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29898366/?gt1=43001
to follow that up i read this post on a talkback forum. it's not political, nor should it be. but a very eye-opening POV based on factual information.
This is a really good article. There are thousands of employees at AIG that did nothing wrong. They got up, went to work, worked hard, and did their jobs providing very good products and services. We seem to forget that.
What most don't understand, even the many thousands that work at AIG, is what their company really did. It wasn't the bonuses. It was the pretend "investments" they sold, through their "let's pretend" mortgage insurance packages that is the major reason the economy crashed.
AIG created such a demand for mortgage product that mortgage companies created all kinds of crazy mortgage product, called "sub-prime mortgages" that allowed anyone, literally anyone, to get as large a mortgage as they wanted. Countrywide, the largest mortgage company in the world, was but one company that went nuts creating new "products" simply because they knew they could sell any loan they could make, because AIG would package them, "insure" them, and sell them as AAA rated investment "Securities". This caused housing prices to go, literally and figuratively, though the roof. Which was great, because then borrowers would refinance and take out more money. More buyers would come into the market. People would keep a home one or two years and then move on to something bigger and better. It was like playing Monopoly.
And it really was like playing Monopoly. But not really. What it really was, was a Ponzi Scheme. Just like Bernie Madoff. Except this wasn't one guy. Cheating people out of Billions of dollars.
This was a huge, respected, old line great company cheating millions of people, and trusts, and insurance companies, and retirement programs, and even world governments, not out of not Billions of dollars...but Hundreds of Trillions of Dollars. Why do you think our puny efforts of throwing a few Trillion Dollars isn't working. This isn't a Trillion Dollar problem. This isn't a Trillion Dollar Ponzi Scheme. It is a Ponzi Scheme for HUNDREDS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS. And AIG may have been a major, if not the major, creator and supplier of the fraud.
So, yes. I sincerely feel for the good people who honestly and competently work for AIG. But, rather than give the crooks at AIG bonuses, which really doesn't even matter, let's investigate this for real and throw the real crooks in jail. Bernie needs company. And some of those at AIG make Bernie Madoff look like a petty shoplifter.
to follow that up i read this post on a talkback forum. it's not political, nor should it be. but a very eye-opening POV based on factual information.
This is a really good article. There are thousands of employees at AIG that did nothing wrong. They got up, went to work, worked hard, and did their jobs providing very good products and services. We seem to forget that.
What most don't understand, even the many thousands that work at AIG, is what their company really did. It wasn't the bonuses. It was the pretend "investments" they sold, through their "let's pretend" mortgage insurance packages that is the major reason the economy crashed.
AIG created such a demand for mortgage product that mortgage companies created all kinds of crazy mortgage product, called "sub-prime mortgages" that allowed anyone, literally anyone, to get as large a mortgage as they wanted. Countrywide, the largest mortgage company in the world, was but one company that went nuts creating new "products" simply because they knew they could sell any loan they could make, because AIG would package them, "insure" them, and sell them as AAA rated investment "Securities". This caused housing prices to go, literally and figuratively, though the roof. Which was great, because then borrowers would refinance and take out more money. More buyers would come into the market. People would keep a home one or two years and then move on to something bigger and better. It was like playing Monopoly.
And it really was like playing Monopoly. But not really. What it really was, was a Ponzi Scheme. Just like Bernie Madoff. Except this wasn't one guy. Cheating people out of Billions of dollars.
This was a huge, respected, old line great company cheating millions of people, and trusts, and insurance companies, and retirement programs, and even world governments, not out of not Billions of dollars...but Hundreds of Trillions of Dollars. Why do you think our puny efforts of throwing a few Trillion Dollars isn't working. This isn't a Trillion Dollar problem. This isn't a Trillion Dollar Ponzi Scheme. It is a Ponzi Scheme for HUNDREDS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS. And AIG may have been a major, if not the major, creator and supplier of the fraud.
So, yes. I sincerely feel for the good people who honestly and competently work for AIG. But, rather than give the crooks at AIG bonuses, which really doesn't even matter, let's investigate this for real and throw the real crooks in jail. Bernie needs company. And some of those at AIG make Bernie Madoff look like a petty shoplifter.
