Gary Ackerman
- Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
- 1983-2013 - US House
- (p32) - Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
- I mean, where is the guy on television who does the bells and whistles and gongs?
- We need all of these things going off here.
- Otherwise, there’s nobody getting our attention.
- The thing that we have to be doing, Mr. Chairman, I think, is taking a look at how we regulate a completely runaway financial giant that’s going on so that when people buy—I think I’m buying insurance—are buying insurance, and not something else.
- I mean, where is the guy on television who does the bells and whistles and gongs?
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- (p31) - Gary Ackerman (D-NY): I just want to make sure that I understand it.
- And I’ll try to explain my understanding in what my mother would call by giving you a ‘‘for instance.’’
- So there are two guys out on a life raft, and they’re adrift at sea, and a storm blows up.
- And the raft is surrounded by sharks and the waves are 10 feet high. And the first guy says, ‘‘I’m scared.’’
- So the second guy sells him the policy.
- That’s a credit default swap.
- You’re selling something with absolutely nothing to back you up.
- You have no money, possibly, in your pocket or your wallet, and, if everything goes right, you’re collecting a premium.
- And if everything goes wrong, so what.
- It makes no sense.
- It’s like snake oil salesmen selling you jars of snake oil, and they don’t even have the oil in the jars.
- I mean there’s a great company called, ‘‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.’’
- You know, at least they have the decency to tell you it’s not butter.
- I mean, this is insurance without being insurance, because if they called it insurance they would have to have money to pay you off.
- But they don’t have the money to pay you off and they’re calling it credit default swaps, because if they called it, ‘‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Insurance,’’ maybe nobody would buy it."
- (p31) - Gary Ackerman (D-NY): I just want to make sure that I understand it.
- (p31) - Gary Ackerman (D-NY): I just want to make sure that I understand it.
- And I’ll try to explain my understanding in what my mother would call by giving you a ‘‘for instance.’’
- So there are two guys out on a life raft, and they’re adrift at sea, and a storm blows up. And the raft is surrounded by sharks and the waves are 10 feet high.
- And the first guy says, ‘‘I’m scared.’’ So the second guy sells him the policy.
- That’s a credit default swap.
- You’re selling something with absolutely nothing to back you up.
- You have no money, possibly, in your pocket or your wallet, and, if everything goes right, you’re collecting a premium.
- And if everything goes wrong, so what. It makes no sense.
- It’s like snake oil salesmen selling you jars of snake oil, and they don’t even have the oil in the jars.
- I mean there’s a great company called, ‘‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.’’
- You know, at least they have the decency to tell you it’s not butter.
- I mean, this is insurance without being insurance, because if they called it insurance they would have to have money to pay you off.
- But they don’t have the money to pay you off and they’re calling it credit default swaps, because if they called it, ‘‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Insurance,’’ maybe nobody would buy it."
- And I’ll try to explain my understanding in what my mother would call by giving you a ‘‘for instance.’’
2009 0318 - GOV (House) - American International Group’s Impact On The Global Economy: Before, During, And After Federal Intervention, Federal Aid to AIG Insurance, Regulators Panel (CSPAN), Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) --- [BonkNote]