Monthly Archives: March 2009

The Public-Private Investment Voodoo

Image courtesy of AllPosters.com/J. Thompson

Each of the three programs announced by the Secretary of the Treasury today has the same theme: the private investor has a limited downside and a huge upside – the American taxpayer bears almost all the downside and gets shafted … Continue reading


AIG and Faux Transparency

Image courtesy of flickr/John Wardell

AIG disclosed some of the firms that benefited from the government bailout. Essentially, the government money was largely used to pay off other firms. I have a few comments. 1. AIG’s customers were either using AIG for hedging positions or … Continue reading


Hemorrhaging Jobs

The losses are staggering. If the pace of January and February continued through the year, we would lose 8.4 million jobs in 2009. That is unlikely, but it will be ugly. Consider the following facts. The percentage job losses have … Continue reading


That Sinking Feeling

Image courtesy of flickr/David Wild

AIG is back to the trough for another $30 billion. We already gave them $150 billion. AIG — supposedly a firm in the insurance business — got into trouble taking an astounding $450B unhedged bet in the Credit Default Swap … Continue reading