By this I mean the foggy world of swaps. If you're at all curious about this, then The Mystery is deepening:
------- For months, there has been heated speculation about Goldman Sachss role in the governments decision to bail out the American International Group ... All along, Goldman has said that its exposure to A.I.G.s troubles was immaterial, because of hedges that it wouldnt describe in detail. A Goldman spokesman sought to explain why Goldman was financially indifferent to whether A.I.G. failed: He said that Goldman had already received significant collateral from A.I.G. related to the credit default swaps, which require A.I.G. to make Goldman whole if the underlying securities default. And to the extent it wasnt collateralized, the spokesman said, Goldman had hedged its exposure to A.I.G. through (what else?) the credit default swap market. So if A.I.G. failed, Goldman could take its collateral, plus the payout from these other swaps, and it would be made whole. What actually happened was that Goldman was paid the balance (the collateral shortfall) from the government, via A.I.G. but the net effect to Goldman was the same. Of course, this explanation raises lots of new questions. Heres one: ****>>>Who agreed<<<**** to get on the other side of this hedge with Goldman? Especially in light of A.I.G.s shaky financial condition? (Goldmans reply: We do not disclose counterparty information.) So heres another: Did the governments payout to Goldman save these other, still-undisclosed counterparties from shelling out billions of dollars? And if so, shouldnt taxpayers want to know who they were? ------------------------------ If you're still reading ... something isn't right here. Who the feck would think insuring AIG's failure would be a great idea? And why is the gov't saving Goldman's balance sheet? This is the kind of crap that makes the AIG bonus thing small ... we're talking about $12 billion here not to mention whatever the counterparty would lose ... to protect ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:292306 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
