TIMMY NEEDS A HAIRCUT

GILLIAN TETT FINANCIAL TIMES--"Just over a year ago, a senior banker who is normally an ardent fan of complex finance sent me an e-mail tagged "wow!". "No haircut on AIG?" he wrote, referring to the fact that the US government had decided to settle AIG's credit derivatives contracts without any discount, or "haircut". "How can you explain that??!!"

It is a question many now ask, not just in New York but in Washington too. Some US politicians have called for Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, to testify on the AIG bail-out in late 2008, following allegations, hotly denied, that some government staff subsequently tried to suppress the details."