Getting a 79.9% stake in AIG for an $85B preferred convertible at 12% is a probably the best deal the government got in all this. If the government rescues the SIVs and redeems the CDSs then we really get screwed and the share holders make out like a bandit. The government should seize this assets and sell them profits to the Treasury if they bail out the likes of WaMU and the scurvy MER, MSH and GS, etc. They should definitely block the merger of MER and BAC. If that goes through it will result sloppy seconds for tax payers.
seems to me that if we allow all these mergers to go through, we are creating more ‘too big to fail’ banks