How AIG's Collapse Began a Global Run on the Banks

This is a fascinating read about the significant role that AIG played in the worldwide economic crash. It is really a good insight into this debacle for people like me who have trouble grasping what exactly happened.

www.kitco.com...

What follows is one of the real secrets to September's stock market collapse. Once you understand what really happened last month, the events to come will be much clearer to you...

Every great bull market has similar characteristics. The speculation must – at the beginning – start with a reasonably good idea. Using long-term mortgages to pay for homes is a good idea, with a few important caveats.

Some of these limitations are obvious to any intelligent observer... like the need for a substantial down payment, the verification of income, an independent appraisal, etc. But human nature dictates that, given enough time and the right incentives, any endeavor will be corrupted. This is one of the two critical elements of a bubble. What was once a good idea becomes a farce. You already know all the stories of how this happened in the housing market, where loans were eventually given without fixed rates, without income verification, without down payments, and without legitimate appraisals.

As bad as these practices were, they would not have created a global financial panic without the second, more critical element. For things to get really out of control, the farce must evolve further... into fraud.

And this is where AIG comes into the story......

I hope you take the time to read the entire article. I found it to be a real eye opener.

I am surprised that no one else found this to be noteworthy. Oh well.

I read this and thought it was brilliantly put together. Those crooks bunched up bad loans (and knowing they were bad) with the good loans and said they are all good. Great article and a must read!

Very good article, explains things in a way the average person can understand.

I think the author puts too much faith in precious metals though. I find it hard to pay for groceries with gold.

Otherwise, an excellent article. S&F

I read something like this the other day. AIG was the beginning and the sad thing is, I had no idea exactly what AIG was doing until I read that article the other day.. Now your article... Its insane, the whole deal. Thanks for posting the article. I think more people need to know the real deal.

I'm checking it out Karl

reading it now

Wow, it is amazing the power of the shameless bump. I was expecting to get mocked for bumping it...

I am glad people find it as interesting as I did.

Great article! I share other memeber's reservations on gold and other precious metals. those prices will be changing rapidly up and down over the next few months as investors decide if they should hunker down and weather this storm out, or if they should buy cheap stock while the market is in decline.

I do not believe the "bailout" will work in the least. It may restore investor confidence in the stock market, but it will not fix the underlying problem: the middle class can't afford to buy things anymore. I view the bailout as a way to keep the rich wealthy, and let the middle class collapse.

This time next year, the middle class might not exist anymore. But that won't bother the rich investors, they'll just buy stock in companies that make food, and other items nessesary for survival.

Luckily, my wife and I are ex-military, and have both been through survival school. We also know how to hunt. We aren't stocking up on food and will turn to hunting if we need to. We've liquidated many assets, and purchased a house with some land with straight out cash. If the SHTF, we have a roof.

I'm thinking this depression that is coming will last a good part of a decade. Instead of telling people to stock up on a year's worth of food, I've thought it is more valuable to teach people the tricks of hunting/survival skills.

Great article Karl! you're posts are always relevant and awesome

Edit: Shameless and horrible grammatical errors. bad enough I might have to commit seppiku.


[edit on 16-10-2008 by nj2day]

reply to post by Karlhungis

Sometimes these threads need to be bumped. I hate to say it, but a lot of the time the important threads get overshadowed by the nonsense threads and people don't see them the first time around. You got my support I think this is important!

thankfully someone finally mentions the FRAUD aspect!

How can this fraud be true and yet no mention of this on the MSM?

Becaue the MSM (the people who decide what is "reportable") only want to put out good news! especially in this period of economic fear.

I would bet the pentagon would have someone's #$% for letting "joe 6 pack" know, how much FRAUD was involved in the Mortgage Back Sequrity mess, given the ability news like this could cause a further loss of confidence in the banking sector and then a depression. Thus it would become a matter of "national security" to keep the lid on this (for now).

Also a tiny little tidbit would be that are very own treasury secreatary paulson was the ceo at Goldman sachs (where he had a certain amount of influence in perpurtrating this MBS fraud!!!) gee that wouldn't be good for building confidence in the banking system would it? But guess what the smart investors all ready Understand this.

To fix the situation they should cut paulson loose, blame him for the MBS mess back at GS, and then MAYBE we could gain some confidence in the system instead of the MSM and pentagon wanting to treat everyone like idiots and imagine nobody understands that PAulson is a reason why there is low confidence in the banking system.

You moron's at the pentagon listening? cut him loose! if not for the sake of the middle class, then for the sake of you precious investments continuing to lose money as long as this untrustworthy person is in charge of fixing what he helped create



[edit on 16-10-2008 by cpdaman]

Originally posted by cpdaman
Also a tiny little tidbit would be that are very own treasury secreatary paulson was the ceo at Goldman sachs (where he had a certain amount of influence in perpurtrating this MBS fraud!!!) gee that wouldn't be good for building confidence in the banking system would it? But guess what the smart investors all ready Understand this.

And who did Hank tap to head up the bailout program?

Ahhh, this tangled web they weave, hm?

I thought the bail out was caused by AIG insuring 'asset' backed mortgages.
Lock in your losses everyone.
How is the money making insurance business so FED uped.
Cause its not a CAPITALIST investment tool.
Where assets produce profits.
It sucked all the money out of the system cause whats the government gonna
do.. save us. Oh save me pretty please while I gross out on more vacations.
A supreme racket.
Life insurance is the best, who's left to collect.
Get back to insuring asset backed mortgages what AIG does best.