Tuesday, October 27, 2009

NY Fed (under Geithner) paid AIG's counterparties 100% of par on swap agreements

instead of taking haircuts (of up to 40%) that AIG CFO Elias Habayeb had initially planned, reports Richard Teitelbaum and Hugh Son*. This cost the government (i.e. taxpayers) over $13 billion by some estimates.

AIG's swap counterparties included Goldman Sachs, Societe General, Deutsche Bank, and Merrill Lynch, who under the broader Fed deal received $14 billion, $17 billion, $9 billion, and $6 billion, respectively.

If anyone tells you that we taxpayers 'made money' on the crisis, or 'Goldman didn't need government help', please ask them about the Fed deal with AIG. Thanks.

I am holding my breath for the new age of 'transparency' to push this secret deal into full, sunny disclosure. I guess my heirs could start ordering my casket soon, right?

*I could not find the link at Bloomberg.com, as this came over Bloomberg news feed 2 minutes after midnight. Will post link when I find it.

UPDATE: Here is the link.

UPDATE: John Carney says the Fed bungled it.

UPDATE: Larry Ribstein called it a 'shell game'.

No comments:

Post a Comment