Search results for AIG
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Posted
Jun 30 2008, 12:28 PM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This barrage of economic non sequiturs has left us immune to any real measure of financial disaster beyond the amount of cash and coin in our pockets. We no longer even notice this process. We accept it and move on. That's one reason financial disasters seem to skate along public consciousness generating only a vague sense of dumbfounded awareness; it's a stealth bear market.
The New York Times tried to spell it out over the weekend - "Battered by Oil, Dow Touches Bear Territory" - but who can be bothered to pay attention to such things when there's wine to be drunk and bill collectors at the door? What does it mean?
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Posted
Sep 08 2008, 03:55 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had their CEOs pushed out by the government over the weekend. They will get fat pay packages and can go on to live in massive homes and become high-paid consultants. The head of Washington Mutual was keelhauled Sunday. He was replaced by the head of commercial mortgage broker Meridian Capital Group.
The board and CEO of Wachovia are about to bring in a new CFO, hoping to get Carlyle Group's David Zwiener to take the job. He is likely to get a nifty pay package for signing on to a sinking ship.
The parade of comings and goings of executives at banks, mortgage companies, brokerages, and insurance firms does not appear to have had the intended effect.
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Posted
Sep 15 2008, 10:19 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
If there was ever a Monday to skip that morning coffee and run on pure adrenaline, this is it.
As Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch jockey for top placement in this morning’s headlines, American International Group is dramatically staking a claim for the financial market’s biggest red flag.
Lehman and Merrill, already collapsed into the hands of bankruptcy courts and Bank of America, respectively, have well-publicized and largely understood troubles. Loaded up with securities tied to US mortgage debt, their capital bases have been eroded by losses and writedowns on bad assets.
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Posted
Sep 16 2008, 03:15 PM
by
Andrew Horowitz
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Since when do we rely on government to intervene in every case of a failing business? If anyone wonders why we have such a mess on our hands, look no further than our boneheaded government that has obviously forgotten its way. Think of this week's action within the financial markets as a result, not the cause of our problems.
AIG is in a battle for its very existence, Merrill has been absorbed and Lehman is bankrupt. And we're only part way through the week. What's next?
These days, many people are wondering what our government will do to stop the insanity. Yet, in a capitalistic society that relies on a free market system, we should only look to the government to guide and regulate against fraud and the manipulation of the system. Sometimes known as a laissez-faire philosophy, the government has a role, but it
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Posted
Sep 17 2008, 04:02 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke proved that they are not anarchists, willing to risk the financial system burning itself into a pile of ashes. Zeus-like, the Fed will bail out AIG at the same time it failed the shareholders, employees, and some customers at Lehman Brothers.
The conventional reaction to the news was that the federal government has adopted two sets of rules. The Fed will loan AIG $85 billion for two years and take a 79.9% share in the insurance company for good measure.
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Posted
Sep 17 2008, 11:44 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Economist Tyler Cowen finds some good news in the AIG fiasco. Writing in his excellent blog Marginal Revolution, Cowen makes three points:
- The Fed and the Treasury may actually make money off of the AIG deal in interest payments.
- The size of the guarantee doesn't represent the cost of the bailout. We don't know the true cost.
- Even if the Fed has to print money to get through this, it does so to protect against potential deflation.
Others are rightfully cynical about this.
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Posted
Sep 19 2008, 10:30 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
A week ago, the United States had the most efficient capital allocation system in the world.
Our free-market economy enabled money, credit and resources to be sent to the economic players who needed it. Entrepreneurs could raise money to start new, innovative businesses; researchers could seek out cures for diseases that touch millions of lives, as well as those that afflict just thousands; firms that made enough bad decisions went bankrupt.
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Posted
Oct 07 2008, 11:42 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
First off, I apologize if this post makes you throw up. Got a trash can handy? Here we go.... Remember that $85 billion government bailout of insurance company AIG? Surely executives there must be under the gun, working all hours to dig the company out of trouble. Our taxpayer dollars demand that, right? Nope. Less than a week after getting the $85 billion commitment, AIG execs went on a week-long retreat at the luxurious St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. The trip cost AIG almost half a million dollars, including $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 in spa charges. Sometimes, after you've worked hard at running a company into the ground, only a pedicure will do.
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Posted
Oct 09 2008, 06:43 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Henry Paulson watched the Brits come up with a new plan to save the banking system before he did. He is probably embarrassed by that. He and Bernanke seemed to have a big lead over everyone else in building Lego models for saving the financial world.
The latest idea if for the Treasury to actually buy equity in banks thereby mainlining capital into large financial institutions in the hope that they will then lend that money out.
It would be a fabulous and daring program if it made any sense. According to The New York Times,"Having tried without success to unlock frozen credit markets, the Treasury Department is considering taking ownership stakes in many United States banks to try to restore confidence in the financial system."
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Posted
Oct 10 2008, 11:37 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Slowest job in the world right now? Being AIG's event planner. The insurance company is canceling its functions after receiving harsh criticism for spending half a million dollars on a spa resort getaway for employees recently. The insurance company got an $85 billion bailout from the Treasury, which apparently wasn't enough because it's getting an additional $38 billion to keep it solvent. In the middle of all this, employees went on a week-long retreat at a California resort and ran up at least a $440,000 tab on drinks, rooms, pedicures and who knows what else. The public reaction was intensely negative, no surprise. And the pressure is enough that AIG is pulling out of an event next week at the Ritz-Carlton in Northern California's Half Moon Bay. The Ritz-Carlton? Oh yeah, that's how AIG rolls.
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