COLUMNISTS
Breadcrumb trail navigation:
By Robert Pozen
Published: December 2 2009 14:28 | Last updated: December 2 2009 14:28
When an insolvent American International Group distributed $165m in executive bonuses last winter, the public was outraged. But this was small change compared with what we have learnt recently from a federal auditor's report on the US insurance group, almost 80 per cent owned by the US government. At the direction of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, AIG quietly gave $62bn to pay in full the claims of Goldman Sachs, Barclays and other large investors.
Why did US taxpayers pay so much to the sophisticated clients of AIG when we could have spent much less to settle these claims? The federal auditor has finally explained to us exactly what happened in this episode, but we still do not know why. At best, we have three inconclusive explanations.
You have viewed your allowance of free articles. If you wish to view more, click the button below.
Read Full Article »
