Please make public the AIG Schedule A of Derivative Contracts and the underlying contracts which you decided to payout at 100%. Let everyone in on the information you had in front of you when you made your decision. If it was for oil futures contracts, so be it. What is your fear if your secret comes out?

Timmy the G-man’s credibility will improve only when these documents are permitted into daylight. Timmy the G-man’s claims of certain calamity are meaningless and superficial when no one else is permitted to have the financial facts and review of the legal contracts Timmy the G-man decided to honor at our expense.

Timmy the G-man’s credibility is zero.

What is your secret Timmy the G-man? What were the extortionists demands represented by the underlying contracts supporting Schedule A? What were the formulas of success which calculated an urgent need to put all taxpayer’s future prosperity at an immediate disadvantage?

We may yet see the forecasted 25% unemployment during the next eight years. Are you sure we unemploymet will not continue to rise now that you’ve paid the ransom? Why should we believe you?

Honesty the best policy.

How are we supposed to implement your proposed financial regulatory reform when the #1 set of culpable transactions are kept under cover by a few Federal employees acting collusively? Trust you?

Reinstating Glass-Steagall would require more participants in your collusive game of deception. Glass-Steagall was designed to prevent and detect fraud. We’ve had a decade of difficulty identifying fraud.

There was a very famous case involving a Boeing 737 in the Hawaiian Islands. The Aloa Airlines suffered a rapid decompression when the entire roof of the aircraft peeled away, and a flight attendant was sucked out of the aircraft to her death somewhere over the ocean.

The aircraft landed successful, with no other lives lost.

But, the chief danger with decompression is that if a hole develops in a part of the aircraft near the seats, a passenger or flight attendant can get sucked out of the aircraft as the plane decompresses!

Further, there can be structural damage which can buckle the floor and interfere with the operation of the control surfaces. This sounds like it is some kind of idiosynchratic flaw which is only showing up as the aircraft ages. In addition to requiring more sophisticated and more frequent checks of the area, Boeing should re-design the area around the door to be more structurally secure.

It is ironic that in all other areas of aircraft construction and operation there is redundancy i.e. there is more than one electrical, hydraulic and naviagational systems. The system dealing with the interior environment of the aircraft is based solely on the integrity of the skin of the airplane and the different seals around the doors.

If there is a leak or sudden rupture of the aluminum skin, the result is a rapid decompression.

What they basically do when you fly is they pump up the pressure inside the hull of the airplane so that it mimics the atmospheric pressure of sea level or as close as they can get. But, the problem is that the aircraft hull has to be almost perfectly intact for this to work properly.

Now, on an airliner, which is used day in and day out year after year, the planes rapidly accumulate a huge amount of flight time.

Now, a brand new Boeing 757 would probably have no problems whatsoever, just as a young twenty year old athlete tends to be in perfect health. But, as the aircraft ages, problems develop.

Sudden decompression is a serious issue. Worst case scenario? You are sitting in your seat (without your seat belt fastened) minding your own business when a hole sudden opens up in the cabin where you are and you get sucked out into the airspace and the hereafter!

Or, second situation, is that the rapid decompression causes a catastrophic failure of the airframe and the plane distintigrates. The British Comet, one of the first jet liners in the world, would distintigrate in thin air because a small crack would develop over a radar window at the top of the plane.

The defect was discoverd and fixed, but the Comet was not too successful after that.

Thank you, gentlemen, for your comments. I should point out that I am a conservative libertarian. This should not matter, but it is important for people to come to understand that the media portrayal of our beliefs is wholly inaccurate. We are for people, regardless of heritage etc, and against over-sized, meddling government. We do have some areas where we have internal disagreements (e.g. border control) but the majority of our core beliefs are strongly held (e.g., self-determination)

India felt the power of libertarian beliefs when the government started, albeit in a limited way at first, stepping away in the ’90s from overzealous regulations.

As a tangent, if India continues on this path, they will outpace China. India’s history in global trade, the expansion of their companies abroad, their emphasis on services and their pluralistic society will allow them to gain a larger share of relatively higher margin global businesses. In contrast, the Chinese economy, government, market stance and forced hegemony does not suggest an ability to meet customer demand in a versatile way. Further, many other poor countries will be on China’s doorstep to take manufacturing away from them once inflation makes China relatively uncompetitive.

In sum, India and the US should work together to promote these common principles of freedom and individual rights within and among our countries. The socialist and center-led beliefs that seem to be gaining favor on the basis of their empty promises ultimately protect and enrich the largest corporations from competition and a small set of national and international power brokers. The same could be said about religious zealots and their desire to impose a uniform and universal belief. If these socialist and center-led beliefs take permanent hold, both our countries will be diminished.

Be well

As others have noted, the $16 billion only accounts for the difference between what the government has directly invested and what it may (or may not) get back from its coming sale of equity, which was brilliantly broadcast far and wide several weeks ago to ensure minimum return.

It doesn’t count the $45 billion tax break Mr. Obama handed them via executive order. It doesn’t count the underfunded pension and health care obligations which were transferred to the taxpayers (potentially as much as $100 billion). It doesn’t include the amount the POTUS mugged the share- and bondholders for when he handed their assets over to his union buddies, value unknown but certainly in the tens of billions.

And it obviously doesn’t include the future costs we the people will absorb when Government Motors comes back to the trough for more support and/or another bailout.

One of two things would have happened if the government had stayed out and let GM go through a conventional bankruptcy:

1) If there was a viable car company there, the vultures would have figured out how to make it work and most if not all of the workers would have kept their jobs, albeit at a reduced rate from the unsustainable wages they’re being paid at present.

2) If in the end it was just excess capacity, then there would have been a liquidation and the assets would have been put to other uses, many of which may well have provided new jobs to replace some or most of the old ones.

Neither of the above is true now, and I’ve got some great waterfront property in the Lousiana Bayou to sell to anyone foolish enough to believe we’re only in GM $16 billion, or that the bleeding stops once Mr. Obama disposes of our shares.

Interesting article indeed.

Couple of quick points for people identifying with Mr. Taseers fathers mindset:

1) India is not in the least fixated with Pakistan nor we harbor any sadness for the partition having carved a separate state out of ‘Hindustan’. We had a shared past 64 years back but we are now a completely different people. Your president is famous for quipping that there is a tiny Pakistan is every Indians heart – no way.

2) Sadly, your countrymen have grown up with a misplaced and virulent hatred towards India. This is only panacea which binds your people and your leadership has masked its enormous failures by misguiding you all into believing that India is the root cause of all your problems. For all we care, you are most welcome to continue believing such nonsense.

I have no sensitivity in claiming that yes, India has its own set of problems but it is a multi-cultural democracy and possesses systems to fix those issues. Progress is noticable, albeit slow. Look at the goodwill India has amassed around the world…if a majority of the people are pointing fingers at your country, it is for a valid reason! We don’t live like the proverbial ostrich that Pakistan is…you only blame others for your plight and refuse to look inwards.

3) Indians are not taught the language of hate. The aam aadmi in India is concerned with living a peaceful life, getting a good education, a good job…yada yada…we’ll be thrilled to see you prosper as well but the onus is on you guys to reverse your mindset and find a solution to the anti-India hyper fixation (which was totally your creation to begin with).

4) I will not bother with empty rhetoric that ‘both nations should relaize the value of peace, be brothers etc’…very utopian and a complete pipe dream unless Pakistan turn into a new leaf.

5) I half-expect a volley of venom from you chiding me for this post because you cannot openly admit that your country is going down the tube (and my merely stating this fact is NOT an interference in Pakistan’s internal matters)….most of you know that hearts-of-hearts.. hating India has caused you a bucket load of harm.

Time will tell, but I can only wonder what happens to a country built with hate as its foundation. I fervently hope to see a day when Pakistan graduates from being a land mass of 18 million people to a nation state. But I am also acutely aware that sadly, such a day might never arrive.

My dear Taseer.

In admiration of your article I would like to add a few words,

first of all let me tell you I am not a historian but just a simple Pakistani, who had seen Pakistan from the day it came into being.

As a young boy of six years I had seen the street rampage taken place in Karachi my birth place, which I later learn t was not as severe as in other parts of the sub continent, I seen Karachi grow from a small city into the mega one

let me now recount to you the nature and scene that taken place in this long journey of sixty years and over.

Right after partition, one thing that India did was land reforms, thanks to leaders like Valabhai Patel, a great freedom fighter.

On the reverse, Nehru and the like in Congress never accepted Pakistan, they did everything to cripple it by with holding the partition money, than the issue of Kashmir and than the greatest tragedy taken place within Pakistan when Mr. Liaquat Ali khan was murdered . I am sure his murder was the art work of all the feudal who were sure like I am from day one that like Valabhai Patel he was going to announce land reforms. This was the day when Pakistani were thrown into the chains of slavery of the feudal from the bonds of British Raj. You see a simple Pakistani has to this day not tasted the fruit of freedom , I wonder was it a great conspiracy or again the dislike for Pakistan from people like Nehru who was befriended with jagirdas of Pakistan.

Coming next on East Pakistan debacle.

I do clearly remember when in 1962/3 I was a third mate on a Pakistan merchant vessel, my ship was in England and there I happen to go through an article in one of the leading magazine was it Life or something, but the article was about India- china war, when Mr. Krishna menon the than Indian Foreign minister had taken foreign journalist to NEFA a place where the actual conflict had taken place which is just two miles above the northern tip of than east Pakistan, when he openly declared had he the three division of INDIAN Army patrolling the border of East Pakistan he would create three mountain division to have given a befitting reply to the peoples army of china. This note was seriously taken by the British parliament who condemned Lord Attlee to say that the British politicians carry a vision of 50 years in the future whilst he could not see for only two years when he divided India in 1947 and china became a communist country in 1949. I as a young boy clearly got the message that the days for East Pakistan to survive are numbered. The conspiracy to do away with east Pakistan was not only from India better known as agartala conspiracy but there were other players too from the countries abroad as well as from Pakistan within whom I would not like to name but leave it for your discretion.

That,Pakistan till the seventies had seen a rapid growth rate where the growth figures of the sixties were around 8/9.5 percent for three consecutive years when Nehru/India was a rag tag country,

That, after seventies Bhutto with his great vision did exactly what Nehru had done to India, social reforms by nationalizing all financial institutions, shipping, insurance and the many more even to the extent of small ginning mills except the land reform where feudal and feudal mentality taken a deep root and getting stronger by the day. Where Pakistan has degenerated

let me tell you of one version a destabilized Pakistan is a Threat to world peace, in order to save that, the world bodies and specially India should understand and stop meddling in the internal affairs of Pakistan, release Pakistani people of this sham democracy and let the true Pakistani people

run their own affairs for I am sure Pakistan still has a lot of talent, which can do good not only for their own people but the world at large.

Feroze ali abdullah

…

I think the Houston Chronicle is an excellent newspaper and I’ve been reading it for 20 years daily. However I do have a strong dislike on how the e-edition is managed. When the e-edition was first brought out, I had it every day and loved the convenience of having the paper and the e-edition. It was really handy to be able to clip articles from the e-edition and send to my friends/relatives. But, along came the poor economy and retirement by me, a double hit to my finances, which forced me to reduce the daily papers to the Thursday-Sunday plan. Recently I was forced to go to the Wed-Sunday plan at additional cost to me but it was only a little. My major problem is the management of the e-edition: I used to get it every day then the Chronicle decided I didn’t need it on the days I got the paper, so no e-edition Wednesday-Sunday which has been a major headache for me! I can’t clip articles any more, I guess the editors don’t want me to or something! Well, I can clip articles on those few days I get the e-edition but that’s only Monday and Tuesday. I’m being told that I’m not allowed to get the e-edition on the other days! Talk about ridiculous. I have complained and was told I could get it the other days for an additional charge!!!

I am seriously thinking of cancelling the Houston Chronicle completely and just using the internet because of your ridiculous policies. I pay for the newspaper and feel I should get the e-edition for all days.

I guess this is just one more way you take advantage of your retired customers who can barely afford the paper as it is!

Count me as one of your UNHAPPY customers!

A UN resolution is not going to create a nation out of nothing. The Palestinian Arabs have a corrupt and non-representative government that exists mostly on foreign aid. They are squatting on ancient Jewish land, which guarantees continued conflict with Israeli Jews who want that land back. Whether or not the U.N. believes the Jews have the right to that land, this conflict will continue.

The recent lack of conflict between the West Bank Arabs and the Israelis is due to economic progress. People in the West Bank have become addicted to shopping malls, restaurants, and relatively quiet nights devoid of gunfire. They can also observe the horrific conditions in Gaza which maintains a warlike state and continually provokes Israel with rocket and mortar fire.

It’s time for the Arab world to recognize that Israel has won the 1948 war for independence. They have to move on now. Israel is here to stay. Wishful thinking is not going to make it go away.

Eventually, Arab oil revenues will start to decline as the world shifts away to alternate fuels for transportation and industry, and the Arab world will sink back into poverty and backwardness from which it briefly started to emerge in the past 30 years. Israel meanwhile will continue to forge ahead, becoming ever more powerful militarily and technologically.

The Arabs would do well to develop economic relations with Israel and learn from them. Israel has so much to offer the Middle East. Too bad the Middle East prefers war and poverty to peace and prosperity.

What’s going to happen if we have another Aloa style disaster involving a Boeing 737? Or, what’s going to happen if a Boeing 737 breaks up in flight and the plane crashes? This is serious business here. Why don’t they just pull the damnnnn planes out of service and be done with it? I can’t believe how incredibly stupid people are. There is no logical reason to keep these old warhorses in the air. Pull them out of service, take them out to the dessert and sell them for scrap.

I can’t believe that Southwest is even thinking about trying to repair these planes. The technology is old. The newer versions have better techniques of fastening the skin to the hull. It out to be an open and shut case.

Finally, maybe Boeing could design a special heavy duty aircraft for airlines like Southwest.

If I were the CEO of Southwest, I’d pull these aircraft out of service so fast your head would spin. There is no sense in taking chances here. No matter how good a repair you think you have on these planes, there will be another problem or another set of cracks that they didn’t anticipate. Southwest has gotten more than its money’s worth out of these planes. Now, why don’t they retire them quickly and gracefully before something bad happens?

I can understand completely that an older aircraft would run into problems. As an aircraft ages there are questions that no one can answer except the practical light of experience. But, now that we know that there is a problem with the skin on these aircraft, why take chances? We’ve had such a good safety record so far, things have been going so well, why not quit while we are ahead?

The cost of 80 old aircraft can easily be taken as a right off. But the loss of a plane load of passengers and a pilot and crew is nothing to be taken lightly. I would urge Southwest to pull these aircraft from service and retire them completely before something bad happens. If the top of a Boeing 737 rips off at 36,000 feet, like the Aloa tragedy that is not going to be a pretty sight.

And, the public can do their part. When they book a flight with Southwest, ask what series the aircraft is, and if it’s a 737-300 refuse to fly it. Southwest will soon get the message.

The planes ought to be pulled from service, and sent back to the Boeing Factory. There they should be torn down and inspected thoroughly. If they can be rebuilt properly, fine, if not, then they should be scrapped.

An old plane wiith cracking outer skin, is just about as useful as a used parachute. Both Southwest and Boeing now are aware of this critical problem. If they fail to deal with it and people die, then both Boeing and Southwest should be sued to the point of bankruptcy.

Take the planes out of service, and get rid of them. I’m sure the Dreamliner is going to experience a similar problem with their composits skins. All of this technology is great until it starts to fail, or act in a way never before predicted, then, like the Japanese reactors in Fukashima, it turns into a nightmare.

Absolutely, we should change our behavior in America.

Change from electing religious Atheists to public offices.

Our forefathers knew what we have yet to learn.

Return to God of the Holy Bible with a personal covenant relationship with His Son who died as our substitute and took the punishment we deserve in judgment.

For America to recover from the curses we have invited on ourselves, America should confess our sins of the flesh and reestablish covenant with Israel.

As we force Israel to surrender land for ‘false peace with Mu$lim$’ whose religion is hate and blood, America suffers in equal proportions each time our leaders pressure Israel to divide their God given land called Israel.

Since the Holy Land Israel is not negotiable, therefore it is out of the question to pressure Israel but to protect this Best Friend in the Middle East.

The more America compromises with hundreds of millions of dollars of Saudi Arab Oil money into the special accounts of NY Governor, NY Mayor, Presidents Obama, Geo W, Bill Clinton, Geo H, Jimmi Carter and Congressman, the more America’ s citizens suffer.

I have learned, that when anyone touches God’s Covenant People, God touches them with the same measure back again.

I appreciate America’s founding forefathers who prayed at every government meeting. No decision was finalized unless there was prayer to God before and after each meeting. What an example. No wonder America WAS blessed.

I am Stan Soboleski and I approve of returning to God of the Holy Bible.