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Spitzer: How Geithner Blew It
A new report on AIG by Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky "reads like a case study in failed negotiation" and suggests that then-New York Fed President and current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner "grievously damaged the nation and capitulated to the very banks [he] should have been supervising" according to New York ex-Governor Eliot Spitzer's column in Slate. Spitzer says that the decision by Geithner and the Fed to pay AIG's counterparties—the leading Wall Street banks—100 cents on the dollar while demanding concessions from other entities makes no sense. As Spitzer puts it, "pressuring Goldman and other counterparties to offer concession would have forced them to absorb the consequences of making suspect deals with an insurance company that was essentially a Ponzi scheme."
lsg280
Throw him out. I want his head on a plate. Lets bring back public floggings.
hockeydog
I hate to agree with Elliot Spitzer on anything, but he hit the bullseye!
Demsdisorder
The first job of the new President in 2012 is to lock that tax cheat Timothy Geithner that man needs to be in jail.
Obama we understand you have a learning curve to the job but why is this A-hole still in that job. get off the golf course and get your ass to work.... no more parties while this county is at war and millions of people are loosing there homes and jobs. You are even worse then i thought you would be... NO more fuc*** speeches we are sic of them and you. JUST GET YOUR ASS TO WORK
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n--Y--maladaptedtruthiness2
Obviously, we were NOT the ones we were waiting for.
DakLak
"Spitzer: How Geithner Blew It."
Of all people Spitzer is an expert on 'blowing it' and, no doubt, getting blown (when horizontal).
Housebird
Eliot Spitzer is an American Hero.
Spitzer was on the side of the people, and for that he paid a price.
Spitzer was the "Sherrif" desperately needed to root out White collar crime.
If the $165 million AIG bonuses didn't shout it out loud to the "Dumbed Down" American public that the elites run the government in their own private interests nothing will.
Corruption runs deep with the "elite" and is the lifeblood of the "Bankers".
Meanwhile the American Dream lives on"All you have to do is work hard."
And millions of Americans have worked themselves to death and died poor.
Will "smokin mirrors" enable Washington's trillion dollar bank bailouts and trillion dollar gratuitous wars for the sake of the military industry's profits and Israeli territorial expansion -- leave ANY money for Social Security and Medicare ?????
The continuing costs of the wars Obama has been ordered to expand and the domestic policies he will push through will overwhelm what's left of the real economy.
Anyone checked the Gold Price today ???? --$1,181 --
A rush to dump $$$$ and -- forget about that foreign vacation.
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when-the-whip-comes-down
Spot on!
Housebird.
Housebird
when-the-whip-comes-down --- lol ---and thanks.
Dare to repeat with my other posts ????
.
MaliciousDisorder
Who blew what Spitzer ?
DakLak
Her name was Ashley Dupre. See: < http://inkslwc.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/prostitute-in-spitzer-case-reveals- herself-name-ashley-dupre/ >.
laughorcryagain
Spitzer ? Slate ?
come on get serious
TWBBug
Elliot Spitzer to take over the Fed...oh yeah, works for me! U go Elliot, lots of us still respect what you do.
Johnnyappleseed
We want someone who knows how to screw people, Spitzer...He da man!
winston1
This sounds like another one is going under the bus. How about Client 9 ratting out Geithner. : The Pot Calling The Kettle Black"
winston1
Don't get to enthralled with Elliot, he got away with going to jail. He was involved in trooper gate, prostitution and is a very nasty person. I realize the Democrats like him because he is a Dem, and he is now a frequent voice on MSNBC but Spitzer I think is much worse then Geithner could ever think of being. He is not very welled like even by his own party.
FatFreddy
I'll agree Spitzer is not very well liked by either side, but you must read this op-ed he wrote in the WaPo BEFORE the crash and before the prostitution scandal on Feb 14, 2008.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR200802 1302783.html
and this at HuffPo after the prostitution scandal on Mar 16, 2008:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/eliot-spitzer-george-bush_b _91764.html
mwwatrel
First, let's remember the state of the economy a year ago. There wasn't much time to do anything. Something had to be done then and now. It's very easy to Monday-morning quarterback. If Geithner had negotiated, for example, a fifty-cents-on-the-dollar deal, we would have been in a situation of not knowing which of AIG counterparties would have failed and what there failure would have led to. It could have very easily led to the collapse of the whole house of cards, which it what they were trying to prevent. Yes, the deal sucks, but we have economic growth again, we're not losing 750,000/month anymore. It took eight years to get to that point last year. It's going to take more than a year to get out of it. Does this make the pain any harder to take. No. But let's be realistic. The economy will not turn on a dime. Geithner did the best he could within the information and time-frame the situation accorded.
jburrey2
unfortunately mwatrel, many of the "bad actors" on wall are working in the Obama administration including Geithner. However, banks have no interest in loaning to anyone at this time, especially small business....you can hear discussions on this topic on MSNBC, Morning Meeting @6:00 west coast time hosted by Ratagan....It's very disputable that banks would have failed without blank checks on the Treasury.....instead "main-street" failed, e.g. 7 million jobs lost, 2M homes lost in 2009, to forclosure and forecasted for 2010... If Obama isn't successful in turning this around his, 2nd term will be similar to what happened to Jimmy Carter....the Independent voters will see to it. The Wallstreet Vampires intend to suck the US economy dry.....Former NY Gov.Spitzer knows bad actors when he sees them despite his own ethical failings of 2 yrs ago!....even the Mafia knew a bad deal that wasn't to their advantage.
Johnnyappleseed
More like thirty years, started in the Carter era.
rodeogal
Eliot Spitzer has a nerve to criticize anybody for anything!
I love MSNBC, but I hate to see and hear Spitzer. Isn't anyone else as "smart"?
Johnnyappleseed
He kept Wall street alive and well.
If he was a fish he would have been a Piranha.
Thank you.
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