- Dollar Dominatrix and TIME 100 member Meredith Whitney on the recent stress test-inspired stock market rally: “Even though I said it was gonna happen, I couldn’t believe it with my own eyes. Because the underlying core earnings power of these banks is negligible.” Aren’t you glad you didn’t just plunk your billions into bank stocks? Oh wait. CNBC
And a new suspect in our favorite pension scandals, some new words from AIG and new intel on what/when Pelosi knew about waterboarding Al Zubaydah awaits after the jump…
- Rep. Jane Harman and an aide Rep. Nancy Pelosi were briefed in 2003 on the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah; Harman was “so alarmed” she wrote a protest letter to the CIA; Pelosi’s camp says she didn’t sign the letter out of respect for the “appropriate” legislative channels. [Politico]
- The pension scandal widens: reportedly the feds are closing in on Julio Ramirez, who got the LA placement agency Wetherly and the Dallas private equity firm Aldus in bed with indicted pay to play mastermind Hank Morris. Ramirez most recently worked for Blackstone but left in March. [WSJ]
- And Bill Richardson’s reaction to the expanding probes of pay-to-play that cost him his commerce secretary nomination and his state’s teachers at least $40 million? He “rolled his eyes.” [New Mexico Independent]
- Goldman Sachs will pay $60 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the state of Massachusetts alleging predatory practices at a mortgage company whose loans it acquired. [Bloomberg]
- But everyone was handing out $7,000 a month mortgages to single mothers living on $1,800 a month at the time! [Boston]
- AIG CEO Ed Liddy’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee is out, and he’s pleased to announce that AIG FP has a mere $1.5 trillion in “notional exposure” left on its balance sheet. And it’s transferring its global property and casualty insurance franchise into an SPV! [WSJ