Ahead of his appearance before Congress today for tea and crumpets, AIG CEO Ed Liddy is waxing philosophic this morning in a Washington Post essay. Let's see what he has to say!
You're pissed. That's obvious. Know who else is pissed? Ed Liddy.
The anger is understandable, and I share it. I have been fortunate in more than three decades in business to see firsthand the wealth creation that well-managed American companies bring to their employees and their communities. I have seen the good side of capitalism. But over the past six months, since agreeing to take the reins of AIG and reviewing how it was run in prior years, I have also seen instances of the bad side of capitalism.
There were a few missteps at AIG.
Mistakes were made at AIG, and on a scale that few could have imagined possible.
Do we get any credit for any of this?
What also became clear is that once AIG's relationship with the government and taxpayers changed, our behavior as a company needed to change. So, of our own initiative, we suspended our federal lobbying activities and halted corporate political contributions. We also restricted executive compensation. In all, total 2008 compensation for the top 47 executives is 56 percent lower than their total 2007 compensation. My annual salary is $1. My only stake is my reputation.
Give yourselves a hand.
Taxpayers should know that the government's assistance to AIG has had a beneficial effect. The assistance has provided stability to the company and to the entire financial system.
This is America.
In America, when you owe people money, you pay them. We are pressing forward with our plan to return money to taxpayers, protect policyholders, and give employees a vision of success and a path for achieving it. With the understanding and patience of the American people and the continued support of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, we can resolve AIG's challenges and help its businesses contribute to a global economic recovery.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:14AM
"I'm angrier than Angelo Mozilo when a bulb burns out in his tanning machine, but I've got the top law firms in the country telling me I've gotta pay these bonuses, so I'm gonna go ahead and pay them."
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:26AM
bollocks.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:27AM
That Kevlar is so you, Ed.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:28AM
"But you can't hold a whole insurance company responsible for the behavior of a few sick, perverted individuals. If you do...
shouldn't we blame
the whole insurance industry?
And if the whole insurance is guilty...
then isn't this an indictment
of our capitalist system in general?
I put it to you, Andrew...
Isn't this an indictment
of our entire American society?
Well...
you can do what you want to us...
but we won't sit here...
and listen to you badmouth
the United States of America!"
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:28AM
gotta remember, this dude was basically asked by Paulson to "be a good American, we need you to help run this company"
Liddy is also taking $1 of pay and travelling to NY from IL every week to help run this thing.
If any of us were him we probably would've said "fuck this" and left a LONG time ago.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:36AM
5- guy is probably staying at the freakin Hi Ho off the Merrit Pkwy fer Chrissakes...
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:38AM
riddle me this, batman:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/business/18aig.html?ref=business
"What upsets some people is that the government paid the counterparties in full even though the underlying securities had not experienced widespread, or perhaps even any, defaults. "
"When the government bought the underlying securities to cancel the insurance, the taxpayer became the owner of these pools of debt issues. Because the government chose to pay par or 100 percent of the face value, the taxpayer has downside risk if the securities lose value but virtually no upside. "
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:39AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-jsgousZcA
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 10:03AM
@6 I stayed at the Hi Ho one drunken evening after the determintaion was made that spending a night there was better than a DUI. It wasn't.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 10:05AM
Ed, stop playing the game. Be a real man. Resign in front of the politicians. Secure your place in history.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 10:41AM
@#7...
Thanks for the NYT link. This counterparty bullshit is even more rediculous than I thought it was.
For all the f'n good it will do, I called the offices of my three Congress members yesterday and asked them to not approve any more Bailout money for anyone, especially AIG. The offices told me that a number of people were calling with the same request.
I don't know what the best AIG solution is, but I think firing Liddy, not paying most of the CDS policies, selling off the good parts of AIG, and then letting the remainder go to hell is a good start.
Use f'n TARP money to pay American institutional bondholders directly if their bond holdings are in default so they can get some of their money back. Don't pay the f'n banks & their other counterparties. F*k them. Let those pricks eat the shit sandwiches they've been serving-up to everyone else for the past 8 years.
WTF would really happen if the likes of AIG, GS, MS, C, JPM, WFC, & BAC were left to wither. I really doubt if we would go back into the stone age. The world would go on.
BTW, I like all the f'n outrage. It's about time this thing heated up. I hope it gets hotter, much hotter.
The Guy from Delaware
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 10:43AM
@4,
[whispering] tell those assholes to shut up
[shouting] Hey shut up you assholes!
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:06AM
Fire Liddy! Fire Liddy!
Sure, Why the hell not?
1) He came out of retirement at the government's request to run AIG (no prior connections).
2) From Day One he's been committed to doing whatever it takes to dismantle/sell the company to pay back the original loan.
3) He's not responsible for any of AIG's prior investment decisions.
4) He's steadily worked to unwind their CDO/CDS exposure.
5) He's not getting paid (yet).
How many executives do you suppose are out there who can run a company of AIG's size and circumstances. And how many would even take the job?
I don't really care what happens to AIG, but Liddy is the government's best chance to get their money back.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:15AM
what was the CDS exposure when the Uncle Sam took over? now it stands around $2trillion. to me, it doesn't seem like there's been a reduction, has there?
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:20AM
@14 Notional exposure from $2.7 in early 2008 to $1.6 at year-end.
Posted by weeklyworldnews , Mar 18, 2009 11:23AM
umm you think?! These bonuses are out of this world.
AIG is now Alien International Group.
lol And we'll prove it. Grassley is off to space?! :)
haha
http://weeklyworldnews.com/alien-alert/6971/charles-grassley-confronts-aig-execs/
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:28AM
@16- stop spamming your piece of shit blog, did you think we wouldn't notice leaving the same link in another post just 5 minutes earlier?
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:28AM
@4...that made my day.
"You can take your thumb outta my ass any time now, Carmine."
-BeckyBlutoFan