Goldman Sachs is a Charity Case, Too.

Goldman: Not So Special After All

This is a very big story and will probably piss off taxpayers like nothing else has thus far.  The Wall Street Journal has the list of all the companies that were essentially made whole by the AIG bailout.  Basically, these are the firms that were counter-parties in transactions with AIG, the hedge fund that happens to be attached to an insurance company.

There have been rumors for months that the AIG bailout was really a Goldman Sachs bailout in disguise, and today, WSJ is reporting that both Goldman and Deutsche Bank received $6 billion of the AIG bailout money in the 4th quarter of 2008.

Ex-Goldman CEO and ex-Sec Treas. Hank Paulson‘s gonna have some ‘splainin’ to do (we hope).

Here’s the list of charity cases who benefited from the AIG rescue:

Goldman Sachs
Deutsche Bank
Merrill Lynch
Société Générale
Calyon
Barclays
Rabobank
Danske
HSBC
Royal Bank of Scotland
Banco Santander
Morgan Stanley
Wachovia
Bank of America
Lloyds Banking Group

If you’re reading this, you’ll probably notice that your name isn’t on here, and neither is mine.  Apparently, when you or I do a bad trade or transaction, its basically our own problem.  Until our bad trades are in the billions of dollars, no one will care enough to take the burden from us.

And we were told that the point of bailing out AIG was to avoid systemic issues!  Well, the system is f@#$ed anyway and the market has officially been wiped out, so at this point, who cares about systemic risk?

Full Story:  Top Banks got $50 billion in AIG Aid

Dealbreaker’s Take

Barry’s Take