This comes via Angus Robertson of Research Recap:
The performance of auto loan securities has been mixed, but Standard & Poor’s Credit Research points out that overall ratings on the ABS have been remarkably stable in spite of the recession.
In a new report on the sector, S & P says that delinquencies and write-downs among certain auto loan [...]

This video from the Charlie Rose show should give one a fairly complete view of most of the relevant finance and political issues surrounding the AIG situation. (hat tip Calculated Risk)

Participants include bank analyst Meredith Whitney and Gretchen Morgenson of the NY Times, and Carol Loomis of Fortune. Why is Hank Greenberg in this panel? It seems incongruous since most of these problems happened while he was the head of AIG. Very strange.

As I mentioned in my post, “TALF: A bailout if one reads the fine print” the TALF is not a program ONLY for U.S. institutions. It is a vehicle for re-starting the U.S. asset-backed securities credit markets. In fact, the first recipient of TALF money may be Nissan Motors, a Japanese company (Hat tip Marc):

This comes via the website The Agonist (Hat tip Scott).  I have bolded the important bits:
So what are AIG’s arguments for making these bonus payments?

All 450 employees of AIG in London, where the derivatives contracts were booked and managed, signed retention contracts at the request of management in early 2008. This was at a time [...]

Back on March 6th, I noted that the nationalized insurance company AIG had settled Credit Default Swaps contracts with a number of counterparties at the top of the market. In effect, AIG was offering a hidden subsidy to its counterparties by settling the contracts and exchanging collateral for money at inflated prices.

By now you have heard that Warren Buffett’s bets on GE, Goldman, and Swiss Re and his derivatives positions have earned him a downgrade from Fitch Rating Agency. Below is the Fitch statement. I have highlighted the key sections.

Don Kohn’s testimony before the Senate Banking committee was so outrageous that I feel compelled to re-post the first paragraphs of this article from Willem Buiter about the moral hazard it represents. Basically, the U.S. government cancelled a bunch of credit default swap contracts at sweetheart prices with the very financial institutions who got us into this mess. Shambolic, I say.

It is this unbelievable in-the-pocket-of-the-finance-industry mentality that is going to be the ruin f the U.S. banking industry. This type of thing must be condemned in the harshest of terms. The link is below as is an associated link on Jim Bunning giving Kohn a working over.

Marshall Auerback here. I have a few words about the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility – otherwise known as the TALF. Economist Paul Kasriel of Northern Trust confirms my interpretation, namely that we get stuffed holding these assets (See my views on this here and Ed’s here). Kasriel is one of few economists that was bearish [...]

In my post TALF: A bailout if one reads the fine print, I did not make any comments about the quality of the assets to be used as collateral or the mechanics of the operation. While much of this information has already been supplied by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on their website, a comment from reader Brian addresses the most salient points

The TALF is a way for any and all comers, domestic and foreign, with toxic asset-backed securities, to dump those assets on to the U.S. government at taxpayers expense. This is happening right now right under your noses.

At least the Fed has the transparency to spell it out. But has anyone noticed?