Andrew Cuomo is asking good questions, and as Karl Denninger points out here, at least someone is. – Ilene 
(Note: wordpress disabled the previous backup site for unknown reasons, so please use the above "Ilene" and subsequent "Ilene’s" for a new backup site. I may need to redo the blogroll if wordpress doesn’t restore the previous site.)
AIG/Banks: It’s About Time (Cuomo)
My God, there is a cop:
March 26 (Bloomberg) — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo subpoened American International Group Inc.’s credit- default swap data to see whether its customers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Societe Generale SA and Deutsche Bank AG were improperly compensated with taxpayer dollars.
“Our investigation into corporate bonuses has led us to an investigation of the credit-default swap contracts at AIG,” Cuomo said in a statement. “CDS contracts were at the heart of AIG’s meltdown. The question is whether the contracts are being wound down properly and efficiently or whether they have become a vehicle for funneling billions in taxpayer dollars to capitalize banks all over the world.”
It’s about damn time.
I have some questions, specifically:
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Why isn’t the FBI performing this investigation.
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Why isn’t US Attorney General spearheading this investigation?
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Why isn’t our President, Barack Obama, demanding this investigation?
From the information available in public reports I believe that AIG’s "rescue" is nothing more or less than a thinly-disguised looting operation for certain preferred banks both here and abroad, intended to improperly obtain the full value of credit default swaps when the underlying instrument has not (yet) defaulted. Since AIG does not have the money (nor will they if and when the instruments do default) the company is being used as a conduit to funnel taxpayer money to these creditors who would otherwise be forced to seek their redress for bets that went bad through the bankruptcy court, and in the process would almost certainly take a very singificant loss.
What’s even worse is that AIG’s "installed" CEO, Liddy, was a director at Goldman Sachs before he took the helm of AIG, and Hank Paulson picked him for both roles!
Since Mr. Liddy is allegedly working for a salary of $1, let’s ask the obvious question that immediately comes to mind – exactly who’s interest does he represent as CEO of AIG? Is he a steward of the people’s money that has been injected to this company, or is he in fact a stooge installed by Hank Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs himself, to make sure that Goldman (and perhaps others, if it could be arranged) "got theirs" – at taxpayer expense?
Congratulations to Mr. Cuomo for having the integrity and public interest necessary to go after this matter, send the subpoenas, follow the trail where it leads and get to the bottom of the matter.
It’s about damn time, and puts the lie to Obama’s claim that he came to Washington to "bring change."
Unless, of course, "change" is in fact even more corruption than we had in Washington DC before!
