How To Avoid a Botched Insurance Bailout

Reader Comments

Back to blog

+1

soundtracks of AL 7:12AM July 17, 2009

FYI - MetLife has rejected government bailout funds, and paid a dividend. They have a significant cash reserve.

Dirk Steinman of TX 7:40AM May 04, 2009

What is remarkable that once solely only life insurance companies, like Met Life

and Prudential, were allowed to leverage the life insurance accounts so as to engage

in "Bad Bets" ventures. The life insurance accounts are inviolate, but the why for this bailout is a Big Secret, as well as all the other bailouts.

The supposed need for bailouts is not the need for liquidity in the pure sense,

but to stave capital loss for having issued bogus securities that held a guarantee

for reimbursement. The bailouts are to replenish the purses for having to anted up

the bogus securities issued.

Where did the proceeds of the bogus securities go. I wondered why, beginning in

the mid 1990s, how private equity and hedge fund outfits were able to amass

more than a trillion in funds to take public firms private. Examples: Golden State

Holdings, Blackstone Group, Alliance Bernstein, Appollo Mgt. and on and on.

There should be a thousand forensic auditors, rather than Neil Barofsky, examining

in minute detail, how the "Bad Bets" came about, and where the bailout funds went.

Old-timer Democrat of NY 8:34PM April 09, 2009

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

Back to blog

Rick Newman

Rick Newman

The global economy is mysterious, even scary. Chief Business Correspondent Rick Newman connects the dots. In addition to his writing for U.S. News, Rick is the co-author of two books: Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11, and Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail.


Read Rick's latest blog entries here.

advertisement

advertisement