Hank Greenberg is suing us (the American people) because he thinks he was screwed by the terms of the AIG bailout.
Jon Stewart brings the snark and the smackdown, which is far better than anything that I could come up with.
But still, we, as in the Federal government (Bush Administration), bailed AIG out to the tune of $184 billion. AIG was going down the tubes, fast. As Stewart pointed out, the market value of AIG was $15.4 billion. So we gave AIG twelve times what the company was worth in order to save it, rather than letting it go down the tubes, in which case ol' Hank would have gotten nothing.
I love it that Greenberg is whining about how this isn't capitalism because the government stepped in and saved AIG. He has a point, for under a pure capitalist system, AIG would have gone under, the economy would have gone with it (worse than it did) and there would have been a chance that Greenberg and the the rest of the AIGers would have had angry mobs torching their mansions.
The Federal government saved AIG. And Greenberg is having a legal hissy fit about the terms?
Jon Stewart is right. Greenberg can go fuck himself.
Backhanded Compliments You Can’t Hand Back
1 hour ago
2 comments:
It's not too late for angry mobs to torch their mansions. Just sayin'.
-Doug in Oakland
I approve of this case. This may be the only time Geithner and Bernanke ever have to answer for their decisions in 2008.
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