AIG’s Cassano: Trillion-Dollar Price on His Head
Great article on the AIG mess in the Times of London: Joseph Cassano: the man with the trillion-dollar price on his head.
I am not referring to the fact he quotes me, but rather some of the other detail that you never see in the US media.
Excerpt:
“Until now, the economic crisis has been seen as a giant intellectual error, and AIG’s multimillionaire employees in England were simply the people who made the biggest mistakes. The first to own up to misjudgment was Gordon Brown’s friend Alan Greenspan — once so revered in his role as America’s central banker that to be photographed with him was as flattering as being seen now with President Obama. “I have found a flaw,” said Greenspan, referring to his free-market philosophy, after the banks started falling over. “I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”
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Source:
Joseph Cassano: the man with the trillion-dollar price on his head
Tim Rayment
The Times of London, May 17, 2009
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article6281953.ece
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May 17th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
[...] AIG story Jump to Comments While our media is consumed about some dumbshit with fake boobs and other fake GOP talking points: In the final three months of 2007, AIG lost over $5 billion. Under the terms of the bonus scheme, [...]
May 17th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Brooksley Born, who monitored the futures markets, tried to extend her remit to unregulated derivatives. Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin, the then Treasury secretary, persuaded Congress to freeze her already limited power, forcing her departure. Rubin had come into government from Goldman Sachs; when he left he went back to banking, and pushed for Citigroup to step up its trading of risky, mortgage-related investments. For his advice, he earned over $126m (£84m) and then, as Citigroup collapsed, became an adviser to Barack Obama. After Greenspan stepped down from the US central bank in 2006, he became a consultant to Pimco, the world’s biggest bond fund, where his insights have been praised by his boss. “He’s made and saved billions of dollars for Pimco already,” said Bill Gross last year. Greenspan is also an adviser to Paulson & Co, a hedge-fund group that has made billions from the collapse in American housing.
May 18th, 2009 at 12:51 am
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/are_aig_fp_employees_using_bailout_cash_to_get_job.php
May 18th, 2009 at 2:01 am
Was AIG Cooked Long Before Joe Cassano? (AIG)
Even before credit default swaps, AIG was not some old-fashioned, hunky-dory insurance firm. Read »
http://www.businessinsider.com/was-aig-cooked-long-before-joe-cassano-2009-5
May 18th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Lori,
you are right
AIG was not in good shape before CDS. If anything you see that in the complete desperation by M. Hank Greenberg as he explains why he is not to blame for the company’s undoing.