Comments on: AIG is teh funny

By: earlofhuntingdon

earlofhuntingdon — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:47:31 +0000

I especially like Summers’ defense that, “We are a country of law”. I don’t think he’s kept up on the Bush/Obama DoJ.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:54:09 +0000

They let Lehman go as an uncontrolled bankruptcy. AIG or bank nationalization would be a controlled bankruptcy. Investors might be wiped out and bondholders might take a hit but it would not have to be the chaos that Lehman caused and which Paulson very much allowed to happen.

By: ThingsComeUndone

ThingsComeUndone — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:52:28 +0000

I think as the economy gets worse more will fall we can’t bailout all of them.

By: Imhotep

Imhotep — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:48:44 +0000

Unfortunately letting another one fail won’t happen. They still sting from letting Lehman fail.

By: ThingsComeUndone

ThingsComeUndone — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:46:24 +0000

Voters paying attention to the issues are numbers are growing the government should be worried.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:44:59 +0000

I just wanted to agree that “too complicated to understand” is just another cop out by those in power when they don’t want to do something. If they want to do something, like say put these derivative contracts together in the first place they had no problem with complexity or understanding.

By: selise

selise — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:44:54 +0000

Tim Geithner needs to acknowledge that the Left has been right about everything on the economy since the Bush years. And that he and his pals have been wrong.
Much like Bush you cannot learn if you don’t admit your mistakes and correct them.

don’t forget the clinton years too - rubin and summers were wrong. stiglitz and the DFH in the anti-corp globalization movement were right. and the people who were reading/listening to alternative media (indymedia, democracy now!, etc) during that time had a clue.

me? i was listening to npr, etc. and had no fucking clue whatsoever. but now i am trying to pay better attention and i want to acknowledge the people who had it right, who were in streets and who were sounding the alarm before any of these issues were even on my radar.

By: ThingsComeUndone

ThingsComeUndone — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:39:26 +0000

Conflict of interest is he running the company for the benefit of AIG shareholders or Goldman?

By: ThingsComeUndone

ThingsComeUndone — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:38:05 +0000

Don’t matter we threaten to stop bailing them out and then we threaten to sell the nonvoting shares. Bankruptcy and ruin will get them to go our way.
We just need to punish one company and the rest will learn.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:37:53 +0000

I think this may explain a lot. From Edward Liddy’s wiki:

Upon taking the position of CEO at American International Group, Mr. Liddy had to resign his board position at Goldman Sachs

Liddy took the AIG job for $1 a year but he gets equity grants of unknown size. But remember it was Goldman that was the major benefactor of the government take over of AIG. It was Goldman’s Blankfein who was the only Wall Street banker in the room when Paulson (OK an ex-Goldman banker) and Geithner put together the initial AIG bailout.