In a December New York Times op-ed, we called for the full public release of AIG email messages, internal accounting documents and financial models generated in the last decade. Today, a Bloomberg story revealed that under Timothy Geithner's leadership, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York told AIG to withhold details from the public about its payments to banks during the crisis. This information was discovered when emails between the company and the Fed were requested by representative Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The emails requested by Issa span five months beginning in November 2008. The Fed's request to suppress this information would not have come to light without the release of these emails. If five months of emails reveal information key to our understanding of the aftermath of the crisis, imagine what 10 years of emails could contribute to our understanding of its causes. We believe the AIG emails and other internal company documents are the 'black box' of the financial crisis -- if we understand the failure of AIG, we will more fully understand the crisis - what caused it and more importantly how to prevent it from happening again.
As such, today we are renewing our request for the full public disclosure of all AIG documents. We believe the government should put these documents on-line, thereby establishing an open-source investigation that would allow journalists and citizens the opportunity to piece together the story of what happened at AIG and in so doing more fully understand what happened in the broader financial collapse. AIG - and more specifically its credit-default swaps exposure - was an important contributing factor to the crash of the financial markets. What sets this company apart from others that played a role in the crisis is that we, the taxpayers, own it. As we noted in our original piece, US taxpayers bought 80% of AIG when they bailed the company out with $180 billion last year. As owners of the company, taxpayers are also owners of AIG. As owners of the company we can demand the release of these documents.
The taxpayer's stake in AIG is held by the A.I.G. Credit Facility Trust, whose three trustees are Jill M. Considine, a former chairman of the Depository Trust Company and a former director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Chester B. Feldberg, a former New York Fed official who was chairman of Barclays Americas from 2000 to 2008; and Douglas L. Foshee, chief executive of the El Paso Corporation and chairman of the Houston branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. We call on these three officials (interestingly all former Fed officials) to immediately release the documents we request.
The value of these documents, if it were ever in doubt, was certainly proved by today's revelations.
Release the emails.
Janet Tavakoli: Timothy Geithner, I Call Your Bluff
The general public has been kept unaware of several politically explosive facts. Given the extraordinary circumstances surrounding AIGs trades, the financial crisis, and bailouts, it's time to reopen this issue.
Huff TV: Roy Sekoff On AIG-Fed Emails: This Has Got To Be The End Of Tim Geithner (VIDEO)
HuffPost Editor Roy Sekoff appeared on The Ed Show Thursday to weigh in on news that Tim Geithner and the New York Fed actively worked...
It seems Industry and wall st have gone way to far,,, seemingly to see just how far main st will allow themselves to be taken..Divide and conquer,,,,,,,,,, a corporate conspiracy against "we the people"..
http://newstalgia.crooksandliars.com/go ... blackshirt
This isn't a right/left issue,,,,, these people have been guarding this system from public scrutiny for decades, JFK:
" It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines economic and political operations. Its preparations are concealed,,,, not published, it's mistakes are buried,,,,,, not headlined. It's dissenters are silenced,, not praised____ No expenditure is questioned,,,,, no rumor is printed. No secret is revealed...."
Main st must unite to fix this,, Boycotts,, strikes and sitdowns are the publics only recourse as Govt is being controlled by a majority hidden from the people that is election proof..
The recession may have been artificially-shortened and sweetened by the stimulus package, but thousands of people are still losing their jobs and their homes as a result of the fraudulent bailout, every day.
Please join me in pushing for a JAILOUT, not another bailout, for these criminals.
Fanned
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01082010/watch.html
I think Spitzer is right. The public needs to understand what is going on. After all we are the owners and it appears these companies are continuing to engage in questionable and even illegal practices. The Fed and finacial companies have been hiding behind secrecy and improvised complexity for too long.
Obama acts like a passenger on the ship of state instead of the captain. He lets the military lead when he supposed to be the leader. He he is letting the health care corporations who are responsible for the health care crisis lead "reform". He lets the highly compromised financial community lead when we own them and he is the de facto CEO.
These are challenging times. We need a real president not a patsy.
Thank you Governor Spitzer and Professor's Black and Partnoy for your service.
It is critical that the emails be released and that Geithner is removed and further investigated.
Further Geithner Points To Ponder:
*This is a link to a Bloomberg article in which Special Inspector General for the TARP Program, Neil Barofsky, explains that the actual amount of the ongoing bailouts of the Banking and Financial System will actually be close to 23.7 TRILLION! Not the incredibly misleading amount often quoted by Tim Geithner and numerous others of only 700 Billion.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aY0tX8UysIaM
Matt Taibbi's "Obama's Big Sellout" form Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/print
*A critical article for a deeper understanding of current economic policy and the harmful role played by some who surround and advise the president.
Outstanding PBS Frontline Documentary that further touches on Allan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers and Tim Geithner's substantial roles in the financial meltdown:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/
ThomastonPaine.com