A Sinner Can Reform but Stupid is Forever
Forget how sleazy this is. How stupid is it than someone with this kind of access is BUYING AIG in January 2008. Just goes to show how hopeless any regulatory solution is. This woman, along with Dodd himself, has privileged access to the best information available to the government. She is chief counsel to the Senate committee charged with overseeing the banks and the bank regulators. And eight months before the crash she thinks AIG is a great investment.
The regulators do not know enough. They will never know enough. If we want a safe banking system, make the banks open their books, so millions of investors, buyers and sellers, skeptics and shorts can take the money away before the banks blow up the world.
“Dodd’s Chief Counsel Bought Financial Stocks During 2008 Crisis,” by Bloomberg’s Robert Schmidt: “Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd’s chief counsel in 2008 traded stock in Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo & Co., American International Group Inc. and other rescued companies as the panel considered legislation to address the credit crisis, according to her financial disclosure form filed with the Senate. Amy Friend, 51, who is now leading the panel’s effort to write a bill overhauling Wall Street regulations, bought $1,000- to-$15,000 stakes in four banks, weeks after Dodd hired her in January 2008 … She also owned shares of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and other insurance firms … The transactions [are] permissible under Senate rules … ‘Amy Friend is one of the fiercest public advocates on Capitol Hill today,’ Dodd said in an e-mailed statement. ‘Her integrity is second to none.’”
Tags: Andrew Redleaf, bankers, banking crisis, banking deregulation, capitalism, dodd, economy, Mortgage Crisis, Regulation, Richard Vigilante, vigilante, Whitebox
