AIG Insurance Company Taken Over By Federal Reserve

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Isn't this about the time for all the conservatives to

chime in about how horrible we 'socialists' in Europe are and how great American capitalism is? You know, 'root, hog - or die' and all that groovy free-market, deregulated everything stuff?

Ye gods and little fish, anybody who still believes the republicans know what they are doing after this mess is seriously out of touch.
 
Whew. Glad the Fed bailed them out. I have a small investment with AIG I'd hate to lose.
 
Good thing you're all going to vote for Obama so the middle class gets a tax break, because when we start paying for these 200-billion dollar bailouts (Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae alone cost that much) today's tax rates will seem like a freakin' bargain.

Then add the cost of the war in Iraq.

Yes, Republicans, you are truly the party of less government intervention, fiscal responsibility and all that stuff.

I'm amazed that ANYONE still believes those things about the Republican party. Lo and behold, many still do! That's not been true for decades, yet somehow they still get mileage out of it.

Oh, well....Hockey Mom will make it all better.
 
AIG's Travelguard division is located in Stevens Point, WI which is about 30mi south of Wausau. The whole town is on pins and needles hoping for the best, time will tell.
 
Employed with aig

My partner worked for AIG and lost his job. I am in school and he was the major bread winner in our family. So our lives just got turned upside down. All his friends too. It reminds me of that movie fun with dick and jane.
 
Old, not very funny "joke"

"When your neighbour loses HIS job, it's a "recession." When YOU lose YOUR job, it's a "depression."

---Anonymous.

It may continue to get worse. I hope and pray that it does not, but.......

"Cultivate friendships, find low-cost pleasures, and pass the meatloaf."

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
AIG Intervention

Much as one hates to see yet another hand in my handbag, no matter whom was in office, or in control of the Federal Reserve, this sadly was truly a case of horrible things happening if AIG were allowed to file for bankruptcy.

Just reading various posts from members gives a small clue just how AIG is so interwoven into many persons lives, and not just via insurance. Had they gone under, all heck would have broken loose (yes, one knows, and one is also tired of hearing that line as well).

What we the people of the United States must do is rise up and hold feet to the fire and make sure this doesn't happen again. Obviously this "no or minimal regulation" isn't working, and the whole financial system needs to be able to deal with 21st and soon 22nd century issues, not things as they were after the Great Depression.

Mr. Paulson will be gone in a few months, and Bernanke may or not be reappointed, but that isn't the point. These problems were allowed to grow and fester over a period of years, under many successive administrations and state governments. Merely moving the pieces on a chess board around does not change the rules of the game, and there is where things need to begin.

L.
 
the taxpayer ALWAYS loses

It seems the poor bloody taxpayers always have to fork out whenever anything like this happens,I do not see why taxpayers should have to bail out private companies,if we do live in a so-called free market, then these firms should live or (if it comes to it),die under the free market.
Although I do recall in about the mid 1980's there was a bad recession and several State banks( banks actually owned by the state government of the respective state),collapsed and had to be bailed out by taxpayers as the state governments were responsible for them.
The only thing which is sure in these situations, the public always lose.
Cheers folks.
 
Laundress,

As always, has put it well.
I just doubt whether the republicans have the will to work and think this through.
Pure deregulation hasn't worked, too many controls don't either.
It is unfair to expect us to pick up the tab,while the pigs who caused this float down to earth on their golden parachutes.
 
Insurance companies

It couldn't happen to nicer people.

If American Family Insurance starts to teeter towards the edge would someone please give me the heads up. I want to watch them fall.
 
"I do not see why taxpayers should have to bail out private companies,if we do live in a so-called free market"

Some of you folks need to really educate yourselves because your comments are deeply concerning.

When banks, brokerages, and insurers the size of AIG fail, it's not just the company and its employees that goes down the toilet. It has a monumental and highly detrimental affect on millions of lives whose pensions, insurance policies, life annuities, life savings, etc., are housed with these institutions. We're talking catastrophic consequences to millions of innocent people here, many long retired, and many who had no say in the matter as to where their pension funds were housed. (AIG holds many federal pensions). Insurance companies don't just do insurance as we know it. They are highly diversified financial services firms the operate in many financial services areas.

The federal reserve did the ABSOLUTELY right thing. They did not "bail" out AIG, so to speak. They took them over, plain and simple, with the full right granted solely to the fed to fire senior management. This is the right way to do it.

It is the government's role to step in and protect the people from catastrophic financial failures, but it is also their role to regulate to protect that from happening in the first place....and here they've failed DREADFULLY. Their brokering of the deal where JP Morgan Chase took over Bear Stearns was the right thing to do also. Allowing major banks to fail will only cause a 1929-style run on all banks. And given that banks are required to hold only 12% or less of their deposits in reserve, this would quickly bankrupt the system almost overnight.

So quit your bitching about the government bailing out this one and bailing out that one. It's not something anyone wants to see happening, but it is their role to protect the citizens of this country from financial ruin. Granted they've done a shitty job regulating matters, but to let the banking system collapse is utterly irresponsible.
 
Andrew

I agree with you, they did not bail them out they took them into receivership where they will sell off their assets and close them down.

Yes it has a long term effect on everyone, but I will stand by my statement. If insurance companies weren't so greedy in the first damn place it wouldn't give me such satisfaction to see them suffer for a change. Greed my friend will kill the system just like it did in '29. Greed will eventually bring them down, it's just Karma.
 
No sensible

person disagrees with saving their asses. But I deeply resent having to pay for it with my taxes...and still having to see the republican assholes who caused the whole mess at the company get off Scot-free.
Then, if we do get another republican administration, they will turn around and sell it for a few cents to their buddies.

By this point, it should be obvious (again) to even the most idea-bound person that you can't have a 21st century capitalist system (which, as a small business owner I heartily desire) and run it as if this were still an agrarian economy.

Sheesh.

Funny how the single-issue conservatives around here are awfully silent on this.
 
"They took them over." Yeah, great. Now our govt is in the insurance business. Easier for them now to force universal health insurance. Nice. How many other companies are lining up for a govt take over, or a govt loan, or a govt bail out? And when the take over/loan/bailout doesn't work and the company colapses, then what? Oh, just add it onto our national debt and raise the taxes on those who can afford it. They can't close our boarders, they can't get us out of Iraq quick enough, but they can hand out our tax money and then take over businesses just like cake. Nice. And when all this does really colapse, it will be the Democrats pointing the finger at anyone but themselves. Lowest approval rated Congress ever, all lead by the Democrats.

I read in the Times that AIG had a big mortgage division. Then I found this... Got this earlier from Boortz:

1. Almost all of the financial problems we see today are based on bad mortgage lending. That would be lending money to people to buy homes who didn't qualify for a loan.

2. The Democrats, under Clinton, strengthened a government-created monster called the "Community Reinvestment Act." This law was then used by "activists" and "community organizers" (like Obama?) to coerce lending institutions to make these bad loans ... millions of them.

3. Now we see what happens when political "wisdom" supplants good loan underwriting. When private financial institutions are virtually forced to make loans to people with a bad credit and job history .. this is what you get. Enjoy it.

The Democrats have offered us a candidate who is very anti-private sector. Obama believes that America is great because of government and those who, like him, deride the profit motive. If Americans are stupid enough to believe his socialist drivel and put him in office .. .then we will get just what we so richly deserve.
 
PeterH770:

"Lowest approval rated Congress ever, all lead by the Democrats. "

Peter:

Would you care to explain to me why Democrats get all the blame for the dysfunctionality of our current Congress, when it's almost exactly half Republican?
 

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