testimony

Oversight Committee AIG Hearing Highlights

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is holding a hearing today, The Federal Bail Out of AIG.

All prepared statements are at the above link. The hearing has testimony from:

  • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
  • Former Treasury Secretary Mr. Henry Paulson
  • SIGTARP Inspector General Mr. Neil Barofsky
  • Executive VP and NY Fed General Council Mr. Thomas Baxter
  • Senior VP and AIG CFO Mr. Elias Habayeb
  • Former NY Fed Chairman of Board of Governers Mr. Stephen Friedman

I'm still swimming through mountains of documents and tons of verbiage, but I will sum up what I do not know so far.

Firstly, it seems that when it comes to figuring out who precisely gave the go ahead for the 100% AIG counterparty payouts, magically top officials were not involved.

Investing in the Nation - China that is

You've probably never heard of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, or USCC. Created in 2000, they research and review economic and security ties with China. Yes, someone, somewhere is trying to monitor the situation.

Today this commission held a hearing, " Research and Development, Technological Advances in Key Industries, and Changing Trade Flows with China".

Guess what folks! China doesn't want those low end jobs or even manufacturing as a long term economic strategy. Nope, they are going for high end research and development in key technical areas!

Walsh open statement: