NY Fed’s Steven Manzari instructed AIG to stand down on all discussions with AIG counterparties

Heard On The Street section, the WSJ notes:
As everybody knows, AIG got a huge government bailout in September 2008 to help make payments on derivatives contracts with banks, including Goldman. Yet in the previous month, Goldman approached AIG about “tearing up” its contracts, according to a November 2008 analysis by BlackRock, then an adviser to the New York Fed. So was Goldman prepared to offer AIG a haircut in the month before its rescue? A legitimate question, given that Goldman refused to accept such a cut when the New York Fed raised the idea after it bailed out AIG.


And while they are at it, and have both a Goldman and a New York Fed employee in tow, maybe they can ask why NY Fed Senior Vice President on AIG Relationship Monitoring Steven Manzari told former AIG Financial Services CFO Elias Habayeb to "stand down on all discussions with counterparties on tearing up/unwinding CDS trades on the CDO portfolio."

And it makes you wonder why Manzari wasn't invited to testify yesterday at the Oversight Committee.