Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Republicans turn on Bernanke before vote

|
|
 
  
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivers remarks at a luncheon meeting of the Economic Club of Washington, in Washington on December 7, 2009. UPI/Kevin Dietsch 
License photo
Published: Jan. 27, 2010 at 4:52 PM
Advertisement

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Republicans Wednesday said U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke trumped his staff on the rescue of insurance giant American International Group.

While the federal government was bailing out AIG with billions of dollars in loans in 2008, "his staff didn't agree with him. I'm talking about e-mail that he sent his staff after his staff recommended that the Federal Reserve not touch AIG, just like Lehman Brothers," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.

On Tuesday, two days before Bernanke's confirmation vote for a second term as bank chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sent a letter to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Edolphus Town, D-N.Y., that said he had "important information from a whistle blower," MarketWatch reported.

"According to the whistle blower, the documents reveal troubling details about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's personal involvement in the original decision to bail out AIG," Issa wrote.

As the committee investigated the AIG bailout Wednesday, Issa said, "we now believe that a staff report was done at the Fed to let AIG go bankrupt. Bernanke pulled it."

"Bernanke did not trust his own governors," Issa said.

Topics: Ben Bernanke, Darrell Issa
Recommended Stories
© 2010 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Protesters, police clash at NATO summit Notable deaths of 2012 2012 Billboard Music Awards
The 137th Preakness Stakes Annual Solar eclipse occurs in U.S. Chen Guangcheng arrives in the U.S.
Additional Business News Stories
1 of 29
FORT LAUDERDALE HOSTS FLEET WEEK
View Caption
Crew members of the USS Kearsarge, Bryane Ingram, Timothy Williams, Curtilious Ingram and Yosuf Hill (l to r) prepare for shore leave shortly after docking at Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on April 30, 2007. The Kearsarge and her crew will participate in Fleet Week USA as part of the McDonalds Air and Sea Show. (UPI Photo/Joe Marino-Bill Cantrell)
fark
Hottest new game show around: School Food or Prison Food? Warning: may induce nausea and vomiting...
Old and busted: Low-carb junk food. New hotness: Gluten free junk food
A word to the wise: Burning down Home Depot won't save your friend's hardware store
Teen cancels order at taco stand. Naturally, someone tries to run him over
Photoshop theme: Books for geniuses (the opposite of the For Dummies series)
Vintage ventriloquism portraits.. pleasant dreams