Send in the Clowns, Don't Bother, They're Here: Client 9

Most corrupt gargoyle on most corrupt capitol building?

I've put off watching Client 9 for several reasons, but chief among them was that I didn't need to have my head explode again. You know, life is short, we've only got so much time on earth, blah blah blah. But much like Spitzer not being able to resist his temptations, I caved. Now I can say that I've reached yet another bottom to the abyss that is EM08, however, I'm now multi-tasking, if that's what you call throwing up while your head's also exploding. Knowledge is messy.

Greenberg's initials prove he knew

There's a moment among a roster full where the central theme of Alex Gibney's is thrown with such in your face gusto it becomes hallucinatory, because it involves no less than mister AIG himself, Hank Greenberg, concocting fraud. Greenberg -- widely regarded then as the most powerful corporate king -- had even initialed (more than once) a handwritten deal memo for the $500 million con. In the end, the Gen Re officers that Greenberg had roped into the scheme were found or copped pleas. Greenberg's fate, however, is perhaps best summed up in a snippet from an interview he gave to Charlie Rose in the aftermath of EM08 when Rose asked him about the value of his stock. Greenberg says that it's worthless, Rose presses for a figure, and Greenberg with a straight face and a shrug says, "a hundred million."

And what is "Gen Re"? Why, it's a re-insurance company, which is just a smoke and mirrors way of calling a casino a legit business, in the same way that insurance is in reality gambling. All reinsurance casinos do is invest in some of the bets that another insurance company made. Just as a CDS (credit default swap) is to a CDO (collateralized debt obligation). And who owns Gen Re? Warren Buffett via Berkshire Hathaway.

I've said it before; Two years plus after the largest heist in history, with forces very much still in play (foreclosuregate, pension fund crises, fed, state & muni debt loads, millions in  unemployment, over 43 million on food stamps, record number of bank closings...) with implications for the future that are unprecedented (just on debt loads alone) and  despite massive evidence of fraud, conflicts of interest, payola... there hasn't been talk of one prosecution for those who were the architects and overseers.

But evidently there's time, money and manpower to go after a governor getting laid.

Prelude to a Miss

With the AIG bonus scandal dominating headlines, the pundits are out in full force. Tonight's The Daily Show and Charlie's (Rose) show were no exceptions. What was interesting about the Rose show was his roundtable choices: NYT's Gretchen Morgensen (one of the mass media pundits who called the real estate debacle and "Fannie Mac"'s role), analyst Meredith Whitney (who was the only one in print to call out Citigroup's house of cards last year, and, a'la' her 3/11/09 WSJ article, Credit Cards are the Next Crunch, is correctly pointing to the next catastrophe), Fortune's Sr. Ed.-at-Large, Carol Loomis, and Former AIG honcho Hank Greenberg (who left amidst scandal, lest we forget).

Loomis was just old, obvious and utterly without any kind of insight, befitting her Fortune pedigree. Of them all, Whitney made the most sense to me. Her analysis of the rush to action as being key to getting us into deeper trouble is right on, as well as the Obama administration not doing its homework. But her best comment was when she said that we ought to give money to the smaller community banks.

I'll have more to say on this but need to view the segment again. For now, smart gal that Whitney.