Former AIG chief says bailout 'failed'

[tomm2thumbs]

Source: Politico/Yahoo

Former AIG CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg says the bailout has "failed" and he's proposing a 10-point alternative focused on saving, not breaking apart, the mega-insurer. Greenberg will reveal his plan during a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today...

(snip)

Elements of the Greenberg plan include reducing the government ownership to a 15 percent equity stake from the current 80 percent, injecting new capital in the form of common stock, and installing a new board and management team.
The real fireworks in the Greenberg hearing, however, may not come from his complex proposals, but from House lawmakers still eager to find villains in the AIG meltdown.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090402/pl_politico/20799_1

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This is surprising news - I thought they were already in the process of breaking AIG apart - that is why people had left because they had 'un-wound' their portion of the company. Very strange...

[Avalux]

1. Fuck Greenberg.

Just like the Pukes - he thinks he has all the answers now. He should be thrown in jail.

[karynnj]

7. He is a REPUBLICAN - he was a major Bush fundraiser

"Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, "ousted in March <2005> from AIG, the Shanghai property insurance company he built into a revered powerhouse because of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into his alleged stock manipulation" Indicted in New York on four counts in Sept 2006. "

from the Source Watch article on Bush's rangers.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush%27s_Rangers

[rurallib]

2. Who in their right mind would buy stock in this company?

[Romulox]

13. Er, the US Taxpayer? nt

[rurallib]

20. I know, but besides us.

[rateyes]

3. He wants to keep it "too big to fail." But, if he wants to reduce the government's

equity stake in AIG to 15%, then return 85% of the funds the government gave you, Greenie, WITH INTEREST of, say 21%.

[Cass]

4. LOL. This is the guy that ran AIG into the ground, right?

Who in their right mind would follow his plan to "save" the company?

I should believe that all of a sudden he grew a conscience and ethics and now has a brilliant plan to save the company he destroyed?

Yeah, I'm not buying that one.

[aquart]

5. Now that they've got all our money, they admit it couldn't work?

And we're still not allowed to hang Paulson?

[karynnj]

6. Greenberg, who was a top Bush fundraiser, is trying to cheat the taxpayer and existing stock holders

The government has an 80% share because that reflected the amount of case the government put in. Unless the new common shares are sold for a price per share that is equivalent to the price per share the government put in, the real value of the government's shares fall.

Assuming, they aren't buying some of the governments' shares back, think of how big this would make the company - for an 80% stake to become 15%, shouldn't the entire company be over 5 times as valuable (due to the cash raised) as it is now?

[OhioChick]

8. This is one of those "no shit" headlines. n/t

[kiranon]

9. Why anyone would listen to anything this man would say is beyond me.

AIG is a disaster. I do not believe that its management will be included in any textbook as an example of how to run a company except the section on running a company into the ground.

[City Lights]

10. Go cheney yourself, Hank. nt

[annabanana]

11. heheheh. . all that money.. just disappeared. . can't understand it...

THEY KNEW! - AIG was a Ponzi scheme plain and simple
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5376779

[Demeter]

12. Nobody Will Buy Any of the Pieces

that's the problem...AIG can't pay back the govt. if their divisions can't be sold off. And buyers are getting more and more bad news about even their tamest, sanest divisions being corrupt and losing money.

The House that Greenberg built is a falling-down shack.

[NashVegas]

14. Oh, Boo Hoo Hoo. Bet He Had No Problem With the Tons Of Companies AIG Broke Up

Along with their clients, on the road to conglomerate corporatism.

[yurbud]

18. good point.

[yurbud]

15. when he shows up to testify, they should hold him upside down and shake the money out of his pockets

then strip him naked, tar and feather him, and kick his ass down the steps of congress.

[BlueIdaho]

16. Awwwww.... Felling a bit grumpy

Watching his personal fortune disappear before his very eyes?

[yurbud]

17. PIC: This is what he should look like as he leaves Congress:

[Zynx]

19. I don't trust a thing that slimy piece of shit says.