Elizabeth Warren tweet:"we bailed you out"

[Playinghardball]

What part of "we bailed you out" doesn't former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg understand? http://nyti.ms/YGE8gb

https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/516619520031866880

[CJCRANE]

1. We bailed you out. It's time to return the favor.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. They believe the whole world revolves around them....

I call people like that "dizzy".

[BrotherIvan]

2. That article made my eyes pop out

The list of malefactors in that article is stunning. Their firms were convicted of fraud and insider trading. But you know what really stood out? The fact that all of these criminals are not in jail and are walking around with even bigger fortunes so they can throw around millions in trying to suck us all dry even more.

This is exactly why liberals were demanding justice for these crimes. But instead it was labeled "hating" and "bashing" and "racism" against Holder who chose not to prosecute. The cases alone, even if it did not lead to convictions, would have unearthed enough evidence so that individuals could have used it in civil cases to recoup their losses. It could have established new precedence and aired out the nefarious goings on. Instead, we just have more secrecy and an emboldened criminal class who is *in fact* above the law.

[Scuba]

3. If only Democrats held the House. Oh wait, the House has nothing to do with this.

[MADem]

7. Well, all appropriations start in the House.

That's why the chairperson of Ways and Means is one of the most powerful politicians in the land.

If Wilbur Mills had been a back bencher, no one would have cared about his little drunken adventure in the Tidal Basin....

Context, for the Very Young:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/tours/scandal/tidalbas.htm

[BrotherIvan]

8. They did nothing illegal, or so I've been told on DU

[1StrongBlackMan]

16. I think what has been said ...

Is not that there hasn't been unlawful conduct; but rather, it is difficult to prove the misconduct at the level everyone would like to see.

[BrotherIvan]

18. Mentioned in the article EW links to in her tweet is

Steve Cohen, a billionaire hedge fund manager who was approached to donate money to the lawsuit (ended up declining).

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/sac-capital-agrees-to-plead-guilty-to-insider-trading/

But on Monday, federal prosecutors announced that Mr. Cohen’s firm, SAC Capital Advisors, had agreed to plead guilty to insider trading violations and pay a record $1.2 billion penalty, becoming the first large Wall Street firm in a generation to confess to criminal conduct. The government has also forced SAC to terminate its business of managing money for outside investors.

Insider trading at SAC was “substantial, pervasive and on a scale without precedent in the history of hedge funds,” said Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan. His office has criminally charged eight former SAC employees; six have pleaded guilty.

Mr. Cohen’s apparent nonchalance — even as the firm bearing his initials admitted it was a criminal organization — reflects what is missing from the plea deal. After more than a decade of poring over trading records, interviewing informants and issuing grand jury subpoenas, federal authorities have not been able to build a case against SAC’s billionaire owner.

....

Without such a case, Mr. Cohen could still be a force on Wall Street, which has long, deep relationships with SAC. With its rapid-fire trading style, the hedge fund has been a top stock-trading client of the major banks, paying them billions of dollars in commissions. The banks have also made big profits extending loans to the fund. On Monday, they all continued to trade with SAC.

As we have seen in some of the hearings, and as Sen. Warren has pointed out, these crimes have gone largely unpunished because the regulators are too cozy with the criminals. But she asked, point blank, why there were no trials. She states that the trials themselves are meaningful and that fines just make criminal actions profitable.

These masters of the universe have been so emboldened by getting away with it, they keep pushing the envelope to steal more and more. When will it end?

[rhett o rick]

4. Of course he doesn't understand. He is a fiscal sociopath. He, like his brethren believe they

are entitled to as much wealth as they can accumulate, no matter how.

[Trillo]

5. It's the real "ME" generation!

Ensconced in corporate paper.

[riqster]

6. Retweeted. Thanks!

[Lucky Luciano]

9. He is pissed that the AIG bailout wiped out shareholders (mostly)

...but the bank bailouts did not completely crush the banks. He is arguing that the shareholder punishments were not equal relative to the banks.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. The AIG bailout SAVED the shareholders.

From the article-

A.I.G.’s stock would have been worthless absent a bailout; it is now worth about $80 billion. Or, as the government’s lawyers have put it, the shareholders’ stake after Washington took most of the company was “worth more than their 100 percent equity stake before the rescue.” Arguing that the shareholders deserved even more is like a formerly starving man’s insisting he deserved filet mignon rather than a rib-eye.

(Bolding mine)

[Lucky Luciano]

17. The shareholders prior to the bailout were crushed.

The shares from before the bailout only represent 8% of AIG's market cap - the government took a 92% stake that comprises most of the current value of AIG. Old shareholders were heavily diluted.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Put him face down on the marble floor of his mansion and slap on the cuffs.

[JDPriestly]

13. TAlk about biting the hand that feeds you.

AIG ran itself into the ground. Faced bankruptcy. Was bailed out in a forced sale of stock to the government which prevented the bankruptcy. And now, AIG investors want the party that forced the sale of stock to pay for what? Damages? Where are the damages? Who was damaged?

A company was saved from inevitable bankruptcy and now claims that being saved damaged it and its shareholders?

I don't quite see the point. Seems to me if there ever was a frivolous lawsuit, this is it. Or am I misunderstanding what happened?

[Rex]

14. This is exactly what I would expect from people without a moral compass.

There is no justice in the world against the Haves. They live by different rules.

[pansypoo53219]

15. the S&L crowd did not get away scot free.

i see goldman sux fingerprints all over this.