AIG’s Benmosche Threatens To Leave (WSJ)
Man’s got a vineyard and 12 bathrooms. He doesn’t need this: “At a board meeting last week, the strong-willed industry executive told fellow AIG directors that he was “done” but agreed to think it over after other board members reacted with shock, according to the people. During the three-hour meeting, board members discussed difficulties of complying with pay policies and retaining talent at the company. Mr. Benmosche’s frustrations “hit a crescendo,” said a person familiar with the matter. “Bob feels he is in an impossible situation,” the person added. Mr. Benmosche didn’t respond to a request for comment.”
Whitacre Prods GM Executives With Message of ‘We Need to Hurry’ (Bloomberg)
Let’s put the pedal to the metal here, people: “I’ve been telling them that we need to hurry every chance we get, that we don’t have long to do all this,” Whitacre, 68, said yesterday in an interview from his office in San Antonio. “This is about a turnaround, this is not business as usual. This is about a new GM, a new way of doing business.”
Tax Fears Are Causing Client Outflows, Swiss Bank Asserts (NYT)
Julius Baer would appreciate it if we could please stop scaring its clients into thinking they’re going to get in trubs for tax evasion.
Geither Wants A Strong Dollar, Will Tackle Deficit (Reuters)
“I believe deeply that it’s very important to the United States, to the economic health of the United States, that we maintain a strong dollar,” Geithner said in a meeting with Japanese reporters at the U.S. embassy.
Swiss Bonus Rules Limited to 12 Biggest Finance Firms (Bloomberg)
So, sorry if you work at UBS.
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From the horse’s mouth:
From: @CGasparino
Sent: Nov 10, 2009 9:31a
Hah. Not quite. But I CAN do 30 pull-ups. :) RT @ComfortablySmug: Gasparino has serious guns. He’s got to be putting up 3-350 lbs.
sent via TweetDeck
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/CGasparino/status/5589731115
benmosche is the greatest ceo in all the land.
benmosche for bank of america ceo!
-KL
so today’s gonna be a busy day…
is Greg Michaels no longer with DB?
Remind me again why anyone at all gives a sh*t about Charlie Gasparino?
@anal_yst care to elaborate?
@6 shut your filthy whore mouth when you’re talking to Charlie.
@6-
We’re talking about the most well-rounded renaissance man, able to break news while simultaneously sculpting that rock-hard temple of love. A generous man, Chazz is frequently seen giving at the Equinox steam-room, as well as receiving. In all, a testament to the american dream.
Who here believes Timmay thinks things through before shooting his mouth off?
can I get a locate on the entire real estate market of fairfield county please? tia
@7
Bond markets, banks closed, do I need to go on?
Time to roll in the Goldman stoolie as AIG CEO. Outside Benmosche probably got fed up with Goldman not returing the margin.
Why was AIG FP bailed out? It’s an offshore sub in the UK. Surely they could have left it to sink in the English Channel rather than have the US taxpayers rescue it?
@14
While I don’t necessarily agree with the manner in which it was conducted, if AIGFP was left to fend for itself, sh*t would have very likely hit the fan, like a massive, super stinky sh*t of otherwise unimaginable proportions.
Guest@#14, Anal_Yst@#15…
It seems to TGFD that had AIG been “left to fend for itself”, there would have been an uproar, but after the dust settled (within a few weeks), everyone would have realized that 95% of AIG were profitable, ongoing businesses. Businesses that had value.
Creditors would wait while businesses & real estate were sold, bonds would then be paid, other legitimate debts paid, and then all the CDS holders (naked & clothed) would have no claims. Also, the FP guys, looking for a bonus, would just have to settle for licking the shit off their heels.
Uncle Sam would not have waisted a zillion dollars either.
Now, WTF is wrong with that scenario?
The Guy from Delaware
@TGFD, no. Letting AIG “fend for itself” would have made TARP look like chump change.
UBS sucks.
@6 Because he has ELECTROLYTES! Obviously.
Since it appears that there is a serious miscalibration of some reader’s ability to discern humour/puns (otherwise known as a “sarcasm meter”) this morning, allow me to rescue this discussion.
The set up to this joke was the reference to AIG and the well-known understanding amongst the financial literati that AIGFP was a subsidiary of AIG, legally incorporated in Her Majesty’s Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. A common abbreviation of this form of corporae structure is referred to as a “sub”. Coincidentally, “sub” could also refer to the class of underwater vessel known as a submarine. The fact that AIGFP was incorporated in the UK, and that the UK is proximate to the English Channel led the poster @14 to feign ignorance and question the intelligence in letting US taxpayers rescue a submarine in distress in the English Channel. In doing so, the poster cleverly incorporated multiple elements of the corporate structure, the UK connection and a pun upon the abbreviation “sub”. Expecting a response more commonly described as “forehead slapping” he/she was faced with the aforementioned miscalibrated measuring devices, which resulted in a somewhat serious debate on the merits of letting AIG fail and a weak response to the joke.
- Not the Joke Briefer but a fan
Guest@#17…
TGFD enjoys reading comments like yours. No substance. No explanation. Just a pithy, imperious, one-word exclamation.
What a tool you are. Don’t you know enough to come up with something better that that?
The Guy from Delaware
@21/TGFD
The percentage of AIG’s businesses that were profitable leading up to the rescue doesn’t change the fact that they were insovlent, both in terms of cash flow and balance sheet.
The markets were already stressed. Asset prices were in free fall. Capital was scarce, and capital buffers among AIGFP’s many counterparties were generally low.
Several large defaults would certainly have cascaded from AIG’s failure onto a market unwilling to buy assets. Under such circumstances, the (morbidly expensive) collapse of sovereign debt becomes a distinct possibility.
-17
Guest@#22/17…
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I really do appreciate it.
Was there a way to avoid paying Goldman and those two foreign banks all those tens of billions in gov’t funds? It seems like a terrible injustice that they were made whole, and that is my biggest beef about that entire damn AIG debacle.
BTW, what happened to AIG’s bondholders and other creditors?
The Guy from Delaware
@23
They *could* have negotiated separately (or collectively, whatever) for
Wait. Goldman doesn’t have someone running AIG too?
(not a GS hater)
-mrp
@23/TGFD
Bondholders could have done worse.
While I wouldn’t speculate about what might have happened to any specific company, there’s room for debate around the strictly necessary level of indirect subsidies in aggregate.
-17/22
Anal_Yst, mrpink, Guest@#17/22/26…
Thank you all. TGFD will give it a rest for now. I don’t know what else to ask anyway. Thanks.
The Guy from Delaware