Eric Kleefeld and I are analyzing the various digs and semi-digs at Rush Limbaugh, followed by various sorts of apologies. And we’re trying to put together some good systematic data on pre-apology hang-time. In other words, how long post-dig did it take for the different Republicans to succumb to the force of Rush’s power and recant.
So far it seems like Steele may have held out for almost 48 hours, which is longer than the mere 24 that Rep. Gingrey managed. On the other hand, Steele may have had an advantage because his original comments were buried on CNN’s DL Hughley show. So probably not many people saw it.
So there’s probably some legitimate question as to proper scoring.
Meanwhile, Eric Cantor did a very mild rebuke of Rush’s ‘fail’ rhetoric on the Sunday shows yesterday. And so far he’s hit roughly the 36 hour mark with no clear recantation on the books.
TPM Reader GC makes an apt point about proper hang time measurement …
Don’t start the “hang time” clock when the original anti-Rush statement is made. Instead, measure the time it takes for the offender to confess his sin once Limbaugh expresses his disapproval.
For example, Steele made his blasphemous comments on Saturday and apologized on Monday afternoon, for a hang time of about 42 hours. But Limbaugh waited until Monday to publicly humiliate Steele, so he could do it on his radio show. Steele apologized almost immediately, for a true hang time of 3 hours. It is possible that Steele was living in ignorant bliss, not even realizing he had sinned, from Saturday night until Monday afternoon.
We’ve raised this question several times over recent weeks and months. Now the Times is asking too. In an editorial in Tuesday’s paper, the editors ask: just who’s getting the money the federal government keeps forking over to AIG? And they’re casting a suspicious eye on Goldman Sachs …
The A.I.G. bailouts fail the basic test of transparency: Who ends up with the money? Major financial institutions are not innocent victims of A.I.G.’s demise. They are sophisticated investors, and they should have known the risks being taken — and who profited mightily from the relationship before it all came crashing down.
Whomever the recipients are, they should be investigated for their roles in the crash and, to the extent possible, be made to pay for the bailouts.
The serial A.I.G. bailouts are especially problematic for their connection to the Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs. At the time of the first A.I.G. rescue last fall, it was reported by Gretchen Morgenson in The Times that Goldman was A.I.G.’s largest trading partner, with some $20 billion of business tied into the insurer. Goldman has said that its exposure to risk from A.I.G. was offset, or hedged, by other investments.
As the Times‘ Joe Nocera explained in a column over the weekend, AIG’s key role in the economic meltdown was selling credit-default swaps, which amounted to insurance policies on those toxic mortgage securities which have upended the world financial system. As he writes …
These exotic instruments acted as a form of insurance for the [mortgage] securities. In effect, A.I.G. was saying if, by some remote chance (ha!) those mortgage-backed securities suffered losses, the company would be on the hook for the losses. And because A.I.G. had that AAA rating, when it sprinkled its holy water over those mortgage-backed securities, suddenly they had AAA ratings too.
AIG’s trading partners weren’t defrauded or hoodwinked. They knew what they were doing as well as AIG did. But the AIG bailout isn’t really a bailout of AIG, which is the ultimate financial zombie institution at this point. It’s a backdoor bailout of lots of different banks and financial institutions here in the US and worldwide. The argument is that letting AIG default on these obligations would trigger the ultimate domino effect, upending numerous other institutions and making the whole crisis vastly worse. In other words, the systemic risk an AIG failure poses to the entire international financial system justifies the bailout.
Whether that is true or not, I don’t feel capable of answering. But if we’re going to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to unwing the AIG mess, as some are now predicting we may do, we need a clearer understanding of who is really getting bailed out with this money
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) says it’s time for the GOP to move beyond Reagan. (Maybe they could settle for moving beyond Rush?) That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) falls in line behind the “Great Leader” Rush Limbaugh — and scorns Michael Steele’s temporary deviation from the party line.
As I noted yesterday, the real question with the AIG bailout is who’s getting the money? AIG isn’t ‘getting it’. For all intents and purposes, AIG doesn’t even exist anymore. The company still has some more conventional insurance companies that remain profitable. But the part we’re dealing with is little more than a pass through at this point. The money we’re giving AIG is being used to make good on credit-default swaps, or de facto insurance policies AIG had with various banks and financial institutions. Basically, AIG was insuring the toxic assets.
So who are the counter-parties? Who’s getting the money.
The short and sweet of it is that it’s a secret.
Here’s what the Times‘ Joe Nocera explained last night on the Newshour …
Basically, the money has been handed over to the counterparties.
You know, there`s a saying now you hear on Wall Street, which is that it`s not a bailout of AIG. It`s a bailout of the counterparties. Now, who are these counterparties? In fact, we don`t know precisely, because the government won`t tell us. And AIG views this information as a trade secret.
Why AIG has any standing to have trade secrets at this point escapes me since the US taxpayer has already shelled out many times the companies worth to keep the company from going belly up.
And in case you missed it, AIG just sued the IRS over $300 million in unpaid taxes stemming from its “tax arbitrage” operations.
ABC reporter who doesn’t understand how income taxes work finds rich people who don’t know either and makes a story out of it.