Posted on 09/16/2008 4:49:39 PM PDT by BGHater
In an extraordinary turn, the Federal Reserve agreed Tuesday night to take a nearly 80 percent stake in the troubled giant insurance company, the American International Group, in exchange for an $85 billion loan.
The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase had been trying to arrange a $75 billion loan for the company to stave off the financial crisis caused by complex debt securities and credit default swaps. The Federal Reserve stepped in after it became clear Tuesday afternoon that the banking consortium would not be able to complete the deal.
Without the help, AIG was expected to be forced to file for bankruptcy protection.
The need for the loans became necessary after the major credit ratings agencies downgraded AIG late Monday, a move that likely to have forced the company to turn over billions of dollars in collateral to its derivatives trading partners worsening its financial health.
Until this week, it would have been unthinkable for the Federal Reserve to bail out an insurance company, and AIG's request for help from the Fed of just a few days ago was rebuffed.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
B. Hussein should make the deals part of his campaign, "Comrades, the government has only begun. Elect me and you will own all the corporations."
yitbos
Your line is the same as Mish’s:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
“Let’s have the government run insurance companies, auto companies, banks, mortgage companies, home builders, brokerages, gas stations, and for good measure let’s throw in pizza parlors.”
Maybe I’m the same guy :)
They 80+% failed, equity-wise.
And just think, these “genius investment managers” are the fine folks we were going to turn over our Social Security to!!! I guess this is the only thing I can think of in 60 yrs. of living that the Dems were correct about.
All kidding aside, I am sick of people saying “but they are too big to fail”. This is the same old mantra that they said about Bear Stearns, the Fannie & Freddie and now AIG. Who is it going to be next time? Too big to fail is getting old, they gotta get another excuse to help out their buddys.
This whole damn mess is like gangrene that the doctor does not cut off enough of the poisioned leg and has to keep going back week after week to cut a little bit more off. Enough, cut the whole leg off and save the patient.
The real issue, and I am personally torn as a capitalist, is that we are setting a precedent that the government will bail out failing businesses. How big do you have to be? How important is the company in the grand scheme of our country?
Part of me thinks this is needed for a company this size, but the other part feels this is bad news for the future. We don’t want our government owning any business, let alone a large insurance company.
It all looks like a move to further the nationalization of banking. Fannie and Freddie were a huge step in that direction.
Taking over the stock was a fast workable solution. It was not the best solution. There needs to be a viable exit plan to get the Fed out of it.
I didn’t say it was.
They do actually—its called a printing press.
AIG exec was harrassed byGovernor Eliot Spitzer
AIG is now the government-owned insurance company. I wonder if they will give us free health insurance?
9 naughts is pretty fast speed for a lead sled like AIG!! LOL
You're dreaming. Taxpayers will get jack $hit.
Depression averted. For now.
The Fed had not choice but to save AIG to prevent a system wide financial panic and subsequent meltdown. They should not have bailed out Bear Stearns but they had to take on AIG.
By my count, the Fed has about $100 to $150 billion left uncommitted to play with. Another big bailout and they are broke. So what happens then? Do they pretend they still have US treasuries money and just keep tossing money out that they don’t have, or do they say “sorry, we’re broke to”?
Who bails out the Fed? Does GW just tack all future bailouts onto the surging national deficit?
Only if the loan is not repaid and the government installs itself as CEO. The loan gives AIG time to balance its sheets and start selling assets. Also - the credit rating agencies should bump their rating back to AAA - which will have an immediate effect on the collateral they have had to put up to cover their paper losses.
If properly executed - AIG stock could be in the teens in less than a month.
TFB. Maybe we can find the executives who drove it into the ground and kill them. Or kidnap their kids, and release unharmed only upon the public suicide of the exec.
Or, maybe John McCain will do with them what he did with Carly Fiorino, and make them campaign spokespeople, with future cabinet jobs a-comin'.
So now it’s established procedure that massive financial failure means that Washington will nationalize you, using however much Washington scrip that need to print to make it happen. Mugabe, here we come!
$4 or $5 per share is a projected price according to another site. We'll see tomorrow how close that is.
We should all breathe a sigh of relief once that happens. /s
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