Bloomberg reports the passing of one of America’s most important and influential investigative reporters, Mark Pittman… Mark was the spear point for uncovering the complexities and potential wrongdoings of the financial crisis… Bloomberg quotes another leading financial columnist on Mark’s passing…
~~~~ … “He’s been on this crisis since before the crisis,” said Gretchen Morgenson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning financial columnist for the New York Times. “He was the best at burrowing into the most complex securities Wall Street could come up with and explaining the implications of them to readers of all levels of sophistication. His investigative work during the crisis set the standard for other reporters everywhere. He was a giant.”~~~~
I wrote the short post below from Mark’s reporting last November… it’s clear he was playing around the edges of the inner circle of the crisis… hopefully his legacy will inspire others to pursue the truth with the same zeal… America desperately needs more light on this crisis…
~~~~ “From Dean Starkman writing in the Columbia Journalism Review (hattip to Chris Whalen)…
~~~~ “… On September 29 …. Bloomberg’s Mark Pittman published a story that blows away any inference that Goldman had no stake in the bailout. This story was brought to my attention after I wrote the earlier piece. Here are excerpts with my emphasis:
Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) — As much as $37 billion from federal bailout loans to American International Group Inc. has gone to investment banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the firm Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson used to run.
And:
Without the government money, Goldman, Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank AG and other firms could have become some of the biggest creditors in a bankruptcy filing by AIG, the world’s largest insurer, because of its billions in losses on subprime bonds and corporate debt.
And finally, just in case you are not getting the picture:
“It was the biggest crisis ever — if you’re an investment bank,”said Joshua Rosner, a managing director at investment research firm Graham Fisher & Co. in New York. “We didn’t just save AIG. We saved the counterparties, the banks. It’s true that it would have been a disaster, but it would have been a disaster for them.”… ” ~~~~~