[Kansas58]

Wrong!

The risk was ALREADY THERE!

The RISK was in the bad mortgages, and the risk would have been there, whether or not AIG insured that risk.

[Rockingham]

If AIG had not written insurance on mortgage backed securities, then the company would not have gone bust. Indeed, without that insurance from AIG, those securities likely could not have been marketed and the financial crisis would have been far less damaging.

So what is the basis for saying that the architects of AIG's collapse should be rewarded for helping wreck their employer and damaging the world economy?