The National Archives did a document dump on Friday, releasing transcripts, meeting agendas, and confidentiality agreements from theFinancial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC).There are interviews with Warren Buffett, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, and AIG Financial Products chief Joe Cassano.The best one we've found so far, though, is a memo on a meeting between the FCIC and Steve Eisman, then of FrontPoint.Eisman was one of the few to call the subprime crash correctly, and he features heavily in Michael Lewis' book, "The Big Short."Steve Carell's character, Mark Baum, is based on Eisman in the movie adaptation. Eisman left FrontPoint in 2011.His interview with the FCIC was especially entertaining. I've been reading out the highlights to my colleagues and we've been in stitches. Eismansaid:No one the FCIC had spoken to "has a clue.""All of CEOs are clueless," with the possible exception of Blankfein.The financial system's methods for measuring leverage amount to "some kind of gobbledygook.""Alan Greenspan is the worst Chairman of the Fed in history."Ratings agencies were told in 2003 or 2004 that their models were wrong, or "probably both years.""Nothing here is criminal, it's just stupid. I think they're generally just stupid."He did a credit-default-swap (CDS) trade with Goldman Sachs in 2007, and was in contact with Greg Lippmann, a trader who also bet on the housing bust.He also met with Citigroup and Bank of America, "but they were pretty incompetent."He was asked if he had documentation of his interactions with a Goldman Sachs executive, and responded, "I don't do documentation, my friend."He repeatedly said that he would give theFCICinformation if itpromised he wouldn't have to testify.Elsewhere, he was asked to talk about the relationship between monoline insurers and the financial crisis. Here is his response:My understandingandit'sjust my understanding of what happenedwas that AIG was the first great seller ofCDS. And when they began that, they didn't really understand that they were selling CDS onsubprime paper. So the whole Street was creating CDOs and layingoff the triple-Arisk ontoAIG. Oneof the more interesting aspects of the subprime securitization processLippman,when we met for the first time, I asked who was long, he said "Dusseldorf." I said later that itcan't beallDusseldorf. Then he'dsay CDOsthere's no real buyer.It is worth nothing that Lippmann was also interviewed, and disputed the scenes in the book"The Big Short," where he singles out German buyers:So I think that that comment where it'sattributed to me that I said, "Idiots in Germany buythis,"I think it's taken way out of context. It'scertainly not something that I led with. I didn't go into peopleand say, "Well you should buy protection because idiots in Germany are selling protection."That'snot howit came about ...So what I can remember from the book, that'sthe thing I have the most problem with.Eisman also echoed Warren Buffett on the need for clawback in Wall Street pay. He said:Forcing people to have equity is not a solutionDick Fuld owned a billion dollars. JimmyCayne owned a billion and smoked doobies the whole timeand that'sa fact. Stockper seis nota solution. I think claw backs from people who manage balance sheet risk is where you need togo. It'ssomething that needs to be explored.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: The days of restaurant tipping are dying
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