This is a mouthfull - These so called insurance policies were sold fraudently. Regardless of the outcome should have never ever been legitimized. Instead of paying these the FBI should have been arresting people. Many of these bets were paid out to the Hedgefunds who purchased them in the non regulated, no oversight market that breeds non filers, and at its core is the most corrupted market that regulators allow to run amuck. Its been going on for ever. But yet the Govt has forced the taxpayer and retail investors to stand behind an industry that was churning out these insurance policies with no money to back them.
What else is ironic unlike the rest of us who may have lost money who have no other recourse but tax write offs, the people who invested with Madoff many very wealthy and living in Palm Beach Mansions will in fact get some of their money back thru the SEC using SIPC. The question here is where does this money come from?
CDS's may as well have carried a Quad Triple A Rating, A guarantee that stipulated that those who betted against the demise of a company would be rewarded, even for those who participated in its demise through short selling its stock.
The responsible parties like AIG who sold these insurance policies set up their own demise from not having the collateral to cover these bets that were purchased in the Over The Counter market, like a Gambler visiting his Bookie and betting the Odds.
Now the taxpayer is the on the "Hook", because our Elected Officials decided to listen to the likes of Henry Paulson, ex-Ceo of Goldman who was appointed by Bush, and on his way out the door, to turn over hundreds of billions to him with no oversight, and then sign on to a Bill that involved hundreds of millions in bonuses, and hundreds of billions in payouts to cover these bets, and not one Congressman elected to read what they were putting their signature to, instead some chose to sell their votes to get the earmarks they wanted.
The end is no where in sight.
AI
