Professor Elam

I was going to start with Mark Pittman the financial journalist who called the sub prime mortgage crisis what it was, American Casino. Please read about Mark and then the next article caught me eye with this comment.

This is still a derivatively challenged system, oversexed, overlevered, and unfortunately over here.

If it turns out that AIG is a counterparty on the wrong side of the banks again, it really would be a bit much, and Timmy should be fired the following day if he dares to utter the "B word."

Darned but Jesse's Cafe does have a way with words. What he means is, do the holders of the Dubai Debt believe they are secure with AIG Credit Default Swaps, see I told you learning this derivative stuff would be important! If they debt holders believe that, well, is AIG good for $60 Billion in CDS?  I doubt it, and so will Timmy Geithner rush to bail out AIG, again, to really bail out the banks that made the bad loans?

Read Well of Emptiness