Here are the specific details via last night’s AIG press release:
(click for larger charts)
Payments Under Guaranteed Investment Agreements
>
Payments to AIG Securities Lending Counterparties
>
Collateral Postings Under AIGFP CDS
>
Payments to AIGFP CDS Counterparties
>
Source:
AIG Discloses Counterparties to CDS, GIA and Securities Lending Transactions
AIG, March 15, 2009
http://www.aig.com/Related-Resources_385_136430.html
AIG DISCLOSES COUNTERPARTIES TO CDS, GIA AND SECURITIES LENDING TRANSACTIONS PDF
http://www.aig.com/aigweb/internet/en/files/Counterparties_tcm385-153017.pdf
aig-coutner-parties (PDF file)
Previously:
Backdoor Bailouts for Goldman Sachs? (March 5, 2009)
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/backdoor-bailouts-for-goldman-sachs/
Solvent Insurer / Insolvent Insurer (March 4, 2009)
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/solvent-insurer-insolvent-insurer/
iBanks Grabbed $50 Billion in AIG Bailout Cash (March 7th, 2009)
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/ibanks-grabbed-50-billion-in-aig-bailout-cash/
Category: Bailouts, Derivatives
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
Good news! AIG is up 17% today on the bonus news. Please Daily Show writers, make some hay out of this.
AIG made the claim that they had a contractual obligation to pay out those bonuses. Can anyone answer this question: Had ad the Government not provided the bail-out and AIG not had the money to pay the bonuses, could the employees still sue?
> could the employees still sue?
I’m sure they could have sued, but I’m pretty sure it’d be a waste of everyone’s time =)
HCF
Aha! California is number 1 on that list of municipalities. Can I play right wing nutcase and say this is a backdoor bailout of Hollywood gay left wing liberals who think men should be allowed to marry their Priuses? =P
Interesting order they picked for that fourth graphic. Why are the two biggest ones placed in the middle without being in alphabetical order? Why is public rage over bonuses being stirred up at the same time they release this info and the real wasting of government money?
The first part of this article discusses this stuff.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/126158-three-card-monte-and-the-feigned-outrage-against-aig
What do the rest of you think?
Me thinks we are at sea someplace between the boiling frog and Chinese water torture..
How much more manipulated should we feel with this continuing release of information when it suits the oligarchy, boosts the market, and is a thinly disguised attempt to dampen growing discontent?
How many people really feel like anything close to the truth is being disseminated?
Time will tell.
Lets think “Outside The Box” the box witht the AIG maleficence on bonuses. The legislature can create a tax code which puts a 99.9% tax on all bonus money made in the 2009 tax year moving forward while a company is receiving any form of taxpayer bailout money. That takes care of legal issues.
AIG big day trade bait today. Hit $1 earlier this session, up 100% from Friday’s close. Right now up 66%. Uh, wow. Strange to see after the beating they have taken (for good reason) in the media the past 24 hours.
Turns out the reason citi and boa will be profitable is because of aig money – the bailout matrushka doll in full effect…
mainstreet, I like your thinking on the bonuses–I had thought of the Credit Suisse approach, where the bonus is paid, say in AIG’s case, in new “financial instruments” that are based on the performance of the bad-paper insurance…as long as the insurance is profitable, their bonus will have value!
I’m thinking also, that the term “bonus” needs to be re-defined… If it is “contractually obligated” then it should not be considered “bonus.” Bonus implies “something extra” for going above and beyond the norm, not just doing the normal thing. Well, I guess the AIG derivatives division did go “above and beyond,” just in the wrong direction!
HCF
mainstreet Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 11:09 am
“The legislature can create a tax code which puts a 99.9% tax on all bonus money made in the 2009 tax year moving forward while a company is receiving any form of taxpayer bailout money. That takes care of legal issues.”
______
I’d like to see a 200% penalty on top of the 99.9% tax.
I’m thinking also, that the term “bonus” needs to be re-defined… If it is “contractually obligated” then it should not be considered “bonus.”
I think bankruptcy pretty much answers all the niggling questions about obligations. Too bad that the US government chose to go down a different, more slippery and ill-defined course. There were reasons, of course, as we are now learning.
Meanwhile, the rally continues. Where have I seen this script before? Let me think…….
@Mannwich: Correct. Seems to be a pretty carefully orchestrated effort to juice the market as much as possible in the interval before earnings get reported again.
Yes, I’m now of the mindset that this rally could continue through the end of the month. All bets are off in April once earnings start being reported though.
GM/Chrysler were forced to slash contracted salaries–why wasn’t/isn’t AIG treated likewise? Could it be the UAW is more patriotic than the people in Finance?
@Melh: Because GM/Chrysler are part of the unwashed masses and not the the Wall Street elite. GM/Chrysler also don’t have the entire country and world by the short hairs. Big difference.
Credit Default Swaps are essentially a mechanism by which IBanks were able to usurp the state’s sovereign authority to print money. They ‘conjured’ money which would later have to be generated by the Federal Government under duress.
GS et al have always operated with an eye to manipulating the state-sanctioned structure of the market place. What is amazing to me is the quiescence, the indifference, and the blindness afflicting so many of us.
The Civil Servants need to make a decision: Are they sociopaths like their counterparts in the banks or are they government employees of a STATE that seeks to be legitimate?
Here is something that the community can execute an ignore on:
Chinalco (Chinese state owned miner) in Peru bought Toromocho, huge copper deposit, and is making infrastructure investments there in Junin, at the Kingsmill plant. They began very dangerous work without having filed an EIA (Estudio de Impacto Ambiental) and it is clear that they conspired with authorities to skirt this requirement and to avoid the public hearings process.
English: http://www.andina.com.pe/Ingles/Noticia.aspx?id=PTbU+J93OI4=
Span: http://www.larepublica.pe/economia/16/03/2009/planta-del-tunel-de-kingsmill-no-cuenta-con-eia-0#comments
The two reports are significantly different. Interesting.
Point is state-corporation coordination in order to exclude citizens from the process. Put that in yer basin of attraction and smoke it. The state is in process of surrendering sovereign authorities to the corporation. Will we be obliged to pledge allegiance to a logotype?
good grief. now aig is up 58% after the weekend news. The daily show could have a lot of fun with this…
What does the fact JPMorgan isn’t on the list represent? If anything?
let me get this straight: Obama now wants to rescind the AIG bonuses, just one day after his economics advisor Summers says on national television, “there’s nothing we can do, we’re a nation of laws and these bonuses are contractually owed”. where are we going? the confusion right now among the Wall St Democrats is palpable
On the bonuses, we’re supposed to believe because AIG had a contract with these scumbags, they have to pay bonuses? That’s the most insane argument I’ve ever heard.
For chrissake, the auto companies had a contract with their union workers, and yet it was a given that if we were going to give them a bailout, we were going find a way to slash the pay of guys who weld autos for a living. Nobody said “oh noes! We are bound by the law, here! There’s nothing we can do except pay the workers what they negotiated in their employment contract.”
It’s just wild that everyone simply treats it as a fact of life that we screw over line workers but our hands are tied if we ever want to go after finance guys. Really, even if you believe the nonsense that UAW destroyed the auto industry, it’s insane to suggest that line workers had a shred of the responsibility that AIG’s finance guys did for their company’s current crisis. And yet the system is out for blood when it comes to from guys in Michigan, but not when it comes to AIG’s back room? What?
This is just symbolic of so much of the rot in this system. Seriously, it smacks of royal privilege–these guys are practically aristocracy. They live according to an entirely different set of rules than the rest of the country, and no matter what, we simply will not allow them to be left holding the bag. It doesn’t even occur to us that they shouldn’t live the life of Riley, even after they’ve taken down our entire economy.
I don’t know what this is, but it’s not capitalism.
It’s called corporate fascism, plutocracy, the big screw. Things like that.
……..The counterparty and bonus issues are totally separate but both have legal ramifications which many here seem anxious to ignore…….There are practical and legal reasons for why the counterparty contracts can’t and shouldn’t be abrogated….Like most people I’m ticked by the bonuses and would love to see them blocked but the sums involved are relatively small…..Given the furore it’s provoked I’m sure the govt lawyered this to death and decided they couldn’t stop them…..Remember Dick Grasso…..All this outrage may make folks feel good…..time for another Santelli rant…..oh no that’s only foreclosures…..but ignoring the legalities isn’t realistic
Maybe it was an international decision to “save” AIG, debtor nations have to follow the dictates of their patrons. What goes around, comes around.
Desperate attempts to improve inwestor confidence and stoke a massive rally before deadly Q1 earnings.
FAZ gets cheaper every day. No rush here but Mr Shorty will enjoy another day in the sun come April.
“Writedown shocks” at the IBs and money center banks. Shocking… !!!
AIG now up 80+% ! How will this play in the MSM? Your 401K could have been made whole!
So I did a bit of research, and the average AIG bonus comes to $412,500 per employee (there are 400 employees involved). Guess how much they originally wanted to pay? $1,125,000 per employee!
I find it hard to believe that there are only 400 people in the entire world who are capable of unwinding these transactions. If these 400 people want to quit their jobs at AIG…let them!
Yep…I can see the resumes now:
2005-2009: Derivatives Trader, Financial Products Division.
Duties: Destroying a multibillion dollar corporation and single-handedly unleashing a global economic depression.
You’re hired!
@franklin411-
dude- seriously- you have to drop it. Every comment you make is political- get a hobby.
So freaking what!
A deal’s a deal. When did that change? Period…Pay M%…AIG, Pay (U.S.)
Maybe you wonder why is France getting back full bore into NATO next month? Anyone?
I didn’t hear anyone complain when the European banks were lending trillions if dollars without no one knowing over there?
What if it was the other way around what would the U.S. do?
An FMI hit man for example or a coup d’etat?
Without a doubt a lot of arm twisting.
It’s just money anyhow!!!!! who gives a dam anymore….
Fascinating. FNM and FRE are up big as well- 30+ %. And WAMU, which still trades on the pink sheets as WAMUQ is up 50% today. What is this telling us?
ignoring the legalities isn’t realistic
It’s not. But neither is pretending that contract law is like the laws of physics–natural, consistent, impartial and unbreakable.
It’s quite telling that we seem to find it a matter of course to break the contracts that protect union guys in the auto industry, but people are seriously suggesting it’s not possible to break the contracts that enrich the guys who took down the economy. Our public discourse has truly been warped by the influence of the people who make this kind of money. It’s not at all reality-based.
theorajones Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
ignoring the legalities isn’t realistic
It’s not. But neither is pretending that contract law is like the laws of physics–natural, consistent, impartial and unbreakable.
…….Look I’d be delighted to break these bonus contracts….But I was amazed Grasso made off with his loot…but he did…..I’m for trying to do it just for the pleasure of giving these guys a load of heartburn…but being realistic about the outcome……
Union contract should not be broken either, MSN media makes a big deal of the 20 bucks per hour, what a joke and people don’t complain. As a matter of fact we need MORE professional unions in the U.S. They are the few who produce something.
Government employee unions is another deal it’s more like management bonuses.
call me ahab Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
@franklin411-
dude- seriously- you have to drop it. Every comment you make is political- get a hobby.
……His analysis of the AIG bonuses wasn’t political…was it
“Your 401K could have been made whole!”
Most people’s 401K have been made hole.
Regardless of focus, this feature on BR’s blog is for commentary, the exercise of ‘speech’. As it is BR’s playground, it seems to me that the only one with a ‘shut up’ button is the blog ‘owner’.
so starbuck instead of assuming the role of arbiter of appropriate discourse and handing out pipe downs, read you who like and skip the rest, a choice I recommend to one who is capable of epic ‘misconstrual’, a kindness really.
otto-
your kidding . . . right? read franklin’s comment at 10:33. hey- I’m all for people getting there point across but does it have to be the same point over and over and over and over . . .
Ahab,
Take an aspirin before you have a coronary!
call me ahab Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
otto-
your kidding . . . right? read franklin’s comment at 10:33. hey- I’m all for people getting there point across but does it have to be the same point over and over and over and over . . .
………franklin411 Says: March 16th, 2009 at 2:10 pm…….I was referring to this one….didn’t seem very political to me….
MRegan Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
“. . . one who is capable of epic ‘misconstrual’ . . .”
Not to mention character assassination, misattribution, and an air of infallibility.
Who are we talking about, BTW?
: )
Before anybody gets offended, I wasn’t even talking about you. Why is it always about you?
@MRegan-
you crack me up- good thing I have thick skin. Also- I prefer to be the captain of my own ship.
@franklin-
It may be too late- ” i’m coming weezy, weezy I’m coming!”
If my math is correct, 67% of payments under guaranteed investment agreements, went to foreign entities, and probably more since the U.S. recipients were active with international clients. What crap! There should be tax implications for transfers out of the country with taxpayer monies.
Hedge fund bets account for many times the world GDP. The only way this can happen is through uncontrolled leverage. These are gamblers. Why are we covering their bets. I’m mad as hell.
The market cap today for AIG is $2.2B. That means the U.S. taxpayer has purchased this company over 80 times with the $185B in “bailout” monies provided to AIG.
What can’t we fire the incompetent, complicit Board and replace them with our slate. We own this sucker, why don’t we run it and runoff the bozos in upper management.
What can’t we fire the incompetent, complicet Board and replace them with our slate. We own this sucker, why don’t we run it and runoff the bozos in upper management.
“What can’t we fire the incompetent, complicet Board and replace them with our slate. We own this sucker, why don’t we run it and runoff the bozos in upper management.”
‘Cause the internationals own us.
….Oh boy it looks like Cuomo is demanding a list of the bonus recipients
Marcus Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
If my math is correct, 67% of payments under guaranteed investment agreements, went to foreign entities,
…….You mean US banks and insurance companies do business with “Foreign Entities.”…….We need to put a stop that right away…..
otto says:
“You mean US banks and insurance companies do business with “Foreign Entities.”…….We need to put a stop that right away…..”
You got a chuckle out of me on that one. However- I would have rather seen the whole thing go down- in flames- where nobody gets a damn thing because AIG went bust.
Fair enough, Ahab.
Moby Dick Chap 37
So spoke Ahab:
“That’s more than ye, ye great gods, ever were. I laugh and hoot at ye, ye cricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and blinded Bendigoes! I will not say as schoolboys do to bullies- Take some one of your own size; don’t pommel me! No, ye’ve knocked me down, and I am up again; but ye have run and hidden. Come forth from behind your cotton bags! I have no long gun to reach ye. Come, Ahab’s compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run.”
call me ahab Says:
March 16th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
otto says:
“You mean US banks and insurance companies do business with “Foreign Entities.”…….We need to put a stop that right away…..”
You got a chuckle out of me on that one. However- I would have rather seen the whole thing go down- in flames- where nobody gets a damn thing because AIG went bust.
……Well that’s because you have a sense of irony but it’s not big enough
MRegan-
Moby Dick has one of the best opening lines in literature- don’t you agree? Right up there with “it was the best of times it was the worst of times”.
I do agree although my speed is more along the lines of:
“It was a dark and stormy night.”
or: “Slowly I turn” . . . no . . . wait . . . that was an “I Love Lucy” episode.