Kevin’s Blog

Maurice “Hank” Greenberg is heading a new corporation, C.V. Starr & Co, Inc.  This is important because Hank is the man who led A.I.G. to the heights of our recent and still impacting recession on the wheels of massive CDO securitization and CDS contracts.  If you’ve forgotten, the Bush administration agreed to bail out A.I.G. in September 2008 to the tune of $85 billion which was then re-negotiated by that administration in November to a $40 billion disbursement from the TARP with another $60 line of credit from the Federal Reserve.  By March of 2009 the Obama administration had increased the bailout to A.I.G. up to $150 billion and A.I.G. wrote down some $60 billion in a first quarter loss.

Editorial A.I.G., credit crisis, Hank Greenberg, Insurance

In a Reuter’s article, a lawyer is quoted as saying,

I don’t understand why it is in the taxpayers’ best interests for us to be punitive in regard to TARP recipients.

Editorial AIG, Bank of America, BofA, CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs

Monday, April 6, Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, announced plans of the Obama administration to make major changes to the U.S. military.  The intended goal of the administration is to shift focus from larger, more conventional warfare to smaller, unconventional wars like Iraq and Afghanistan or insurgents from Pakistan who disrupt their host nation and raid into neighboring Afghanistan.

I like the idea of focusing on an agile, unconventional military and I see scrapping the F-22 as a potentially worthwhile deal (how long has that thing been in development?) but I think it’s ridiculous to not keep a large, standing military with “dumb” weapons like rifles as well as putting dollars into developing new technology planes and submarines.  I don’t like the idea of throwing away the conventional for the unconventional; I’d prefer that we utilize both.

Editorial Council on Foreign Relations, President Obama, Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, Wall Street Journal

According to Dr Bernadine Healy, former director of the National Institute of Health (NIH), embryonic stem cell research, the type that President Obama just opened up when he lifted the ban President Bush put in place, may not provide the benefit once thought. Embryonic stem cell research may help those who have their own cord blood banked in the future but it appears that this avenue of research has lost its luster for most.  Embryonic stem cell solutions have, in some cases, led to tumors.

Editorial CBR, Cord Blood, NIH, Stem Cell

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, under pressure from his U.S. supporters yielded and agreed to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudry.  The U.S. supports President Zardari but the administration is also supporting public marches and demonstrations to which Zardari and his appointed local governor, Salmaan Taseer, have opposed. The main demonstration that was planned was directed by former Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, ostensibly with the goal of getting President Zardari to reinstate the former Chief Justice Chaudry who was ousted during former President Pervez Musharraf’s administration.

Editorial Benazir Bhutto, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudry, Nawaz Sharif, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, PML-N, PPP, President Obama, President Zardari