Where is the money AIG lost?

[Fireweed247]

60 billion in three months? Where did the money go?

I am noticing a pattern here, people lose billions of dollars, people like Madoff steal billions of dollars....where is the money? Why can't anyone find the money Madoff took for instance? Is anyone looking? The money changed hands and ended up where? It is still out there somewhere but all anyone talks about is a few million he spent on homes or boats.

Our stock market tanked, all the banks 'lost money', where the hell is all the money? Someone is sitting on a ton of cash!!

I am sure that I am a conspiracy nut, but this looks like an orchestrated attempt to move all of the world's wealth even further into the hands of a few, and the situation was already bad...

[JSK]

1. It never existed.

But it was used to leverage other deals, the tentacles of which reach throughout the global economy. Giant House of Cards is an understatement.

[formercia]

2. Now you're getting it.

It was a guaranteed win, even if they lost.

The CDS losers get par value, even if they made a bad bet because AIG covers their loss.

One of the boys wins, another loses but still gets paid. They both walk away laughing.

[RB TexLa]

3. If a CDS loses it simply goes away, there is no value to it.

If the security that it is on does not default during the time frame of the CDS the CDS vanishes.

[formercia]

13. Insurance fraud

The whole thing is an insurance fraud scam.

[Life Long Dem]

4. That's the whole issue.

No one knows how much toxic waste is out there. Most estimate it at $16 trillion. I believe we're around $9 to $12 trillion now.

Some we're sold over and over again as many as 100 times.

[peacetalksforall]

5. therefore, citizens who were not 'in' on the deal who are losing their homes should

get to keep them. Makes sense. There is no audit trail. Let there be some winners. Everyone who has lost their pension, their job, their home, their savings should not be penalized with taxes, bad credit report, and they should get paid bankruptcy fees, plus 1/20th in cash of what they lost so they can start again. At the minimum. Citizen bail-out FIRST!.

[Fireweed247]

6. let's find all the money then redirect to the people

I think we need some sort of bounty for information about where all of the 'lost' money is. Someone in the Bahamas or Switzerland has the info, we just need to find their price.

[dkofos]

7. In our 401k's

[gratuitous]

8. 401(k)?

Mine's more like a 226(k) about now. Wow, have my investments taken a beating. Good thing I'm not needing that money for a while.

[TahitiNut]

9. When an asset on a balance sheet has a change in valuation, the "money" ...

... gained or lost is represented on an income statement as a gain or loss much like depreciation or an unrealized capital gain/loss. This is the argument regarding the "mark to market" valuation rule (FASB) for such assets - securities of arcane kinds. When the 'market' dries up (no willing buyers) the valuation drops like a stone. The holders of such assets are "left holding the bag" (an apt metaphor, since the bag is of no value without contents).

We MUST remember that "money" includes marketable securities - liquid assets - and when the liquidity of those assets goes away, so does the "money."

Every homeowner should understand this ... if they track their net worth in a manner similar to a corporation maintaining a balance sheet. When the value of the home drops, it's a loss of net worth.

Comprend?

[RB TexLa]

11. I don't think you are going to get far with some who simply want to picture W, Condi, and Cheney

bathing in tubs of ill gotten money.

[TahitiNut]

12. Well, the cabal sure isn't hurting for wealth. Cheney's net worth probably increased ten-fold.

At least.


And I doubt he bathes.


:shrug:

[Fumesucker]

14. What, is there a shortage of Iraqi babies' blood?

Of course Cheney bathes, what else to do with all that blood?

[BuyingThyme]

10. Well, presumably they paid it to all the customers who insured bad investments.