Vinny’s Blog

This post is perfect for the weekend….you know about TARP (Trouble Asset Relief Program) under this program first the US Treasury gave away billions of dollars in a hurry. Well, then congress did not like it and so they established an over sight panel. Here in this video you will hear what the head of this over sight panel had to say……….enjoy….

Part -I

Part II…

—–
AIG’s Bank Payments Probed by TARP Inspector General (Update3)
By Hugh Son
April 7 (Bloomberg) — The Treasury’s chief watchdog for the U.S. financial rescue program is probing whether American International Group Inc. paid more than necessary to banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. after the insurer’s bailout.
Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, began an audit last week into whether there were attempts by New York-based AIG or the government to reduce the payments, according to an April 3 letter to Representative Elijah Cummings. The Maryland Democrat requested the probe last month along with 26 other members of Congress.

Lawmakers, frustrated with the cost of an AIG bailout that has expanded three times, have asked why about $50 billion was paid after the initial September rescue to banks that bought credit-default swaps from the firm. The audit will reveal who made “critical decisions” regarding the payments and provide an explanation for the actions, Barofsky said.

“To what extent did AIG pay counterparty claims at 100 percent of face value and was any attempt made to renegotiate and close out these claims with ‘haircuts?’” Barofsky wrote. “Questions concerning whether AIG paid more than necessary to counterparties and whether Treasury adequately monitored such payments are clearly relevant.”

AIG, under pressure to show how its $182.5 billion U.S. bailout was being spent, revealed on March 15 that banks including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank AG and Societe Generale SA were top recipients.

“We would like to know if the AIG counterparty payments, as made, were in the best interests of the taxpayers,” lawmakers led by Cummings said in a March 25 letter to Barofsky.

Read this interesting article here

Then, this Goldman - AIG debate has inspired one individual so much that he has actually established a website to throw light on how this one company not AIG ( we all know about that one) but Goldman conducts it’s business.

http://www.goldmansachs666.com/

This site gained so much popularity that Goldman even hired a lawyer to shut this website down. If you click on the link above you will know that site is still up….

Goldman Sachs hires law firm to shut blogger’s site
Goldman Sachs is attempting to shut down a dissident blogger who is extremely critical of the investment bank, its board members and its practices.
By James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:16PM BST 11 Apr 2009

Disclaimer¹

1. Thankyou! [↩]