AIG Rivals Met Bernanke To Complain

Some of American International Group Inc's (AIG.N) biggest rivals have urged U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to prevent the insurance giant from using the government rescue to win an advantage, particularly by cutting prices, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In an article posted on its website, the Journal said AIG's competitors had complained directly to Bernanke at a Mar 4 meeting at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington.

Read the whole story: Reuters

Comments

[magecat]

09:24 PM on 03/23/2009

The problem is not the lower prices; it is because AIG is using bailout funds in way it was not

suppose to be used. This money was meant to help them get rid of the toxic paper not to lower the

price of their insurance.

[rad21]

08:30 PM on 03/23/2009

Watch the interview with Eliot Spitzer on CNN last Sunday at Fareed Zakaria GPS. Self-interest soon turns into greed; especially when there is no "skin in the game". The financial system created its own house of cards to "gin up" the self-interest and camouflage the greed. The Federal regulators were asleep at the switch.

The country needs a special prosecutor with subpoena to investigate the entire financial / Wall Street debacle both here and abroad. Wall Street gamblers are likely to show up en-mass at the sheriff's office, returning their loot once the announcement of the special prosecutor is made. Many may even help unwind their tricks without any "retention bonus" and with a hope to get-off for good behavior.

I suggested Eliot Spitzer as the special prosecutor for his knowledge, experience, and track record as NY attorney general. He is also a Democrat that the Executive, Congress and Fed Reserve will trust. Spitzer is known throughout the country. His success as attorney general is well-known to us in New York. Spitzer's appointment saves the government from self-embarrassment on the bonus issue and other actions or inactions. It will also save the Feds and country from daily distractions.

Some Americans have qualms about Spitzer, given his personal lapses. Yet I would ask: If they were seriously ill, would they turn away the otherwise best doctor; just because of some lapse in personal judgement? Do they know a person with impeccable moral character?

[MyTake]

04:36 PM on 03/23/2009

BERNAKE only listens to the powerful international BILDERBERG Group and no one else. Here is a partial list of the 3 day secret Bilderberg meeting held last June in Virginia: http://newsworldwide.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/bilderberg-meeting-sorted-by-country/ . (go to bottom for U.S. list)

OMG, there is Paulsen, Geithner, Summers, Bernanke, the Merill Lynch guys, Corporate Media Heads, Rose, RIce, Kissinger and cracking the GLOBALIST whip is David Rockefeller. Even a Microsoft Guy and a Google guy showed up. IT IS STRANGE that this powerful international group never makes it into the media, maybe because they control transnational corporate media through their membership!

And here is a very nice still photo of Bernanke leaving that meeting, once you get past the Blackwater security types flashing their middle digit finger.

So Bernanke was seeded into his position by The Bilderbergs and he only listens to their direction. All others are TUNED OUT!

[research]

03:29 PM on 03/23/2009

The MSM just can't get the story straight:

"AIG was rescued by the U.S. government in September after it nearly went bankrupt trying to meet obligations on bad mortgage bets."

NO.

AIG was rescued because it kept no Reserve to pay SWAPS INSURANCE CLAIMS from Hedge funds, who in turn may have invested in Home Loans, but also in bets against Main Street.

Throw these Frauds in Jails, take "Treble Damages" .
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/users/profile/research
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/print

[sposton]

01:34 PM on 03/23/2009

I think the software that runs this site is utterly broken.

[sposton]

12:22 PM on 03/23/2009

I am reading William Greider's latest book, which I recommend highly. It is so clear that our current condition was created by Federal Reserve policies of the last few decades. They are certainly the main reason for American wage stagnation over this period. This ended up impoverishing our nation's majority while enriching our kleptocratic classes. It really is time to get rid of this monstrosity disguising itself as an agency of federal government. Instead of being solely pissed off at AIG's bonuses we ought to redirect our pitchforks directly at Federal Reserve. The central banks must be owned by the American people and it ought to work for the American people. This whole notion that we must support our banksters as a way to assure the wellbeing of Americans is phony as the "federal" in Federal Reserve. Would we tolerate a privately owned central bank if it was called something like the Kleptocratic Bank of America? Remember, these private interests control the issuance of our currency! Federal Reserve is not a part of the solutions - it is the problem. Our political system must be made to reform this evil system once and for all or this monster will devour us all. If not now then when?

[MyTake]

04:23 PM on 03/23/2009

You make an important point about the PRIVATE CENTRAL BANK known as THE FEDERAL RESERVE.

I carry a U.S. dollar bill with me to show people when in discussion about the corruption smearing everyone caused by GLOBALIZATION.

The top line reads FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE when it should read UNITED STATES BANK NOTE. Had The Federal Reserve been abolished and replaced with a TRUE United States Government Central Bank, we not be in this DEBT and INTEREST, DEFLATION and INFLATION cycles that is administered at will and for the profit of the INTERNATIONAL BANKING SYNDICATES. They seized control of the U.S. Central Bank in 1913 after using Rockefeller/JP Morgan political bribe money to pass THE FEDERAL RESERVE ACT which has never been subjected to a full public audit..

Now, this is good, generations later, this 3 day secret annual international BILDERBERG meeting was held last June in Virginia with this partial attendee list: http://newsworldwide.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/bilderberg-meeting-sorted-by-country/ (go to the bottom for the U.S. list)

OMG, there is Paulsen, Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, Daschle, Heads of Corporate Media, Rose, Rice, Kissinger and the globalist BOSS of BOSSES, David Rockefeller who checks to see the GLOBALIZATION marching orders are MARCHING.

Americans are being GAMED and need to MASS protest.

[RRG64]

11:33 AM on 03/23/2009

"The United States has been ransacked and pillaged.
Our structures have been gutted and only the walls are left standing. While being perpetrated, everything the world would rake up to sell us was brought in here at our expense by the Fed until our markets were swamped with unneeded and unwanted imported goods priced far above their value and make to equal the dollar volume of our honest exports, and to kill or reduce our favorite balance of trade.

As Agents of the foreign central banks the Fed try by every means in their power to reduce our favorable balance of trade. They act for their foreign principal and they accept fees from foreigners for acting against the best interests of these United States.

Were these words spoken in 2009? No. 1933
http://www.wikiprotest.com/index.php?title=Congressman_McFadden_on_the_Federal_Reserve_Corporation#The_Federal_Reserve_-_A_Corrupt_Institution_2

WHERE IS OUR Louis T Mc Fadden?

[eladora]

10:30 AM on 03/23/2009

Get them out of the DOW They are almost insolvent --get them out of the dow.

[Three Four Five]

10:17 AM on 03/23/2009

Financial Terrorism and Recouping the Bonus Payouts:

http://voteforamerica.net/editorials/Comments.aspx?ArticleId=256&ArticleName=Squashing+Fiscal+Abuse

[bluguy8]

09:00 AM on 03/23/2009

Hey we own that co now--- we deserve to undercut the competition and get the business

[EminemsRevenge]

09:18 AM on 03/23/2009

DEFINITELY...we should put the Post Office into banking and put those clowns in check too!

[beaupritchard]

11:33 AM on 03/23/2009

I'm surprised google or yahoo haven't bought the Postal Service ... it is a private company. Email has cut into revenues badly ... hmmm

[MESGAIN26]

08:37 AM on 03/23/2009

How has the Fed Chairman managed to avoid being the prime target of public anger? GIVEN that the Fed has a seat on the board of AIG , Bernanke was there as the Federal Reserve presided over, and, I would argue encouraged, the inflation of the biggest Credit Bubble in history.In other words over the period 2002 to 2009, Governor Bernanke has had a key and highly influential role as one of the 'guardians of the nation's finances' on the board of the Federal Reserve.In June, 2005 he was appointed chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisors. In 2006 he was appointed by President Bush as Governor of the Federal Reserve Over this same period, and under the watch of the Federal Reserve, AIG accumulated massive, and historically unprecedented liabilities -- a truly incomprehensible $62 trillion of liabilities

[DragonFly]

08:14 AM on 03/23/2009

Competitors are complaining?

Well if I remember correctly, in a 'free market' you lower your prices to stay competitive.

It sounds like AIG's rivals are whining to Bernanke because their usual 'price fixing' system has a crack in it and they want him to step in and put it back like it was.

Can't allow 'the people' a break, now can we?

[stateMachine]

08:45 AM on 03/23/2009

How on earth is using tax payer money to undercut your competition the workings of a free market? AIG's competition is alleging that AIG is using their partnership with the government to eliminate competition. This is the monopolistic behavior of a trust.

And what is too big to fail? A trust.

[P2MAY]

11:44 AM on 03/23/2009

"How on earth is using tax payer money to undercut your competition the workings of a free market? AIG's competition is alleging that AIG is using their partnership with the government to eliminate competition. This is the monopolistic behavior of a trust."

well I read the article in Reuters....how come they don't list the names of the companies that are complaining ?

[schatsie]

07:55 AM on 03/23/2009

Now that I actually read the Reuters article, I have to say, AIG too big to fail and now AIG too bigger to fail with OUR money...

also, from the great Johnny Depp. You can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest..... get it?

[schatsie]

07:49 AM on 03/23/2009

well, here's the article that the NYT or WaPo should have written:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/print

Funny hearing that Earnst and Young is the outside auditor for the fed... Tell me who is the auditor for AIG....if it is E&Y, then I would like to say good bye to them personally...Just another ENRON or S&L fiasco....At least with ENRON and the S&L, people actually were convicted and went to jail and forfeited their personal fortunes... They were convicted of RACKETEERING, but i guess Geithner's BFF list could not be Racketeers could they?

[bikerdude]

10:25 AM on 03/23/2009

Thanx for the link...I just read that article you linked, and as POed as I was before, I am now enraged! How do we stop this takeover? The "have mores" have their edge right now, but we have to end that. Regulation and oversight by people we can trust is the only answer.

[PhilipTaylor]

06:30 AM on 03/23/2009

What Goldman and the other Big Banks did:

1. Made/Sold a defective product: Manufactured/Sold a “Sure Fail” Mortgage!
2. Make a “SURE FAIL” Derivative out of parts of a bunch of “SURE FAIL” Mortgages!
3. Buy insurance: Bet massively and repeatedly that the :SURE FAIL" product will FAIL!
4. Wait and Collect the Insurance on the FAILURE!

Not only is this a form of “SELF-Generated Insider Trading” but it violates the Laws governing Defective Products.

DEFECTIVE PRODUCT - A product is unreasonably dangerous to the user, when it has a propensity for causing harm beyond that which would be contemplated by the ordinary user having knowledge of the product's use.

Product liability law governs the manufacturers and sellers for damages caused by dangerous products. The goal of laws are to help protect consumers from dangerous products, while holding manufacturers and sellers responsible for putting into the marketplace products that they knew or should have known were dangerous. Product liability extends defects in real estate loans.

GROUNDS for Prosecution:

Product is dangerous when used as intended.

Manufacturer: required to make a product which is free from dangerous conditions.

Marketing Defects: A marketing defect involves such issues as inadequate warning labels or instructions, which, for example, prevent a user from recognizing a defect in the product, or from being aware of how to safely use or apply the product.

[AllenPapapetrou]

06:56 AM on 03/23/2009

Spot on Philip!

[schatsie]

07:52 AM on 03/23/2009

The SUPREMES would never agree to convicting the Corporacracy of anything....If only they had been there for Love Canal, our country would now be a physical toxic waste site AND a financial toxic waste site...

I cannot believe that the Euros are going to listen to this government about ANYTHING AT ALL...If any of them tried 1/10 of this stuff, they would be out of office in less than 2 months...