The facts: It is not true that we were unwilling to agree to a dealer poll. On the contrary, AIG would not agree on a process to obtain third-party values. Michael Sherwood doesn’t know why someone might have suggested he thought it would be embarrassing to have third-parties value the securities.
It seems to me that the Times is fine to quote from Cassano’s email and that, as mentioned above, it qualifies as evidence of Goldman resistance.
As far as the big picture goes, the Times headline was:
Testy Conflict With Goldman Helped Push A.I.G. to Edge
That not-very-controversial premise is amply supported in the story.
Put it this way: of all the Times stories that Goldman dislikes, this is the one it should probably dislike least.
