by Deb Cupples | The Federal Reserve refuses to tell us taxpayers where the billions of tax dollars lent to AIG have gone. Citing confidential sources and secret documents, the Wall Street Journal claims to know where about $50 billion of the roughly $180 billion went. Reuters Reports:
"The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that about $50 billion of more than $173 billion that the U.S. government has poured into American International Group Inc since last fall has been paid to at least two dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions.
"The newspaper reported that some of the banks paid by AIG since the insurer started getting taxpayer funds were: Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Deutsche Bank AG, Merrill Lynch, Societe Generale, Calyon, Barclays Plc, Rabobank, Danske, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Bank of America, and Lloyds Banking Group." (Reuters)
It wouldn't surprise me a bit if those companies received tax dollars via AIG, because AIG set out to insure investments of many companies worldwide. That's partly why AIG is viewed as too big to fail.
On the other hand, the Wall Street Journal is relying on sources and documents that it won't disclose. If the WSJ were owned by someone other than Fox News father Rupert Murdoch, I would have fewer doubts as to the accuracy of the claims -- but not no doubts.
I've always found it troubling when so-called journalists rely too heavily on confidential sources and secret documents that cannot be fact-checked precisely because of the secrecy.
Then there's the question of who leaked the confidential information, especially where government secrets are involved. The New York Times tells us merely that it was a "person briefed on the deals."
Was the source a government employee or a lawyer who was sworn to secrecy? If so, then that source's ethics certainly would come under question.
Or was it an employee who secretly got approval from higher-ups to leak the secret info? If that's the case, then what was the purpose behind the leak?
(Sigh) The world may never know. Memeorandum has commentary.
Other Buck Naked Politics Posts:
* Report: How Lobbyists & Politicians Caused Financial Meltdown
* Taxes: Media Manipulate People To Speak Against Their Own Interests
* 651,000 American Jobs Lost in February
* Congressman Grayson Grills Citigroup CEO
* Kudos to Obama for Trying to Reduce Contractor Waste and Fraud
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