Skip to main content

From Our Continuing Series : "They're Baaaaack...."

"Too big to fail" corporate crack whore AIG is back for more.

(The first $150,000,000,000.00 the American taxpayers gave it wasn't enough apparently).

Gosh, who could have ever predicted that the federal government's "money for nothing, stimulus for free" bonanza of the last 6 months would result in these bloated corporate junkies (the lucky ones who were "allowed" to survive) coming back for more.

I suppose the taxpayers can just "absorb" AIG's $60BN expected loss.

Obama's mortgage "plan" has us "absorbing" up to $200BN in losses each for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Why stop anywhere?

Wait...Is that Barack I see riding in on a stimulunicorn?


CNBC reports company expected to report $60 billion loss, largest ever

updated 3:18 p.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 23, 2009

AIG is in discussions with the government about securing additional funds so it can keep operating after next Monday when it will report the largest loss in U.S. corporate history, sources told CNBC Monday.

CNBC's David Faber said sources close to the company told him the loss will be near $60 billion due to writedowns on a variety of assets including commercial real estate.

He said that massive loss is likely to spur downgrades in the firm's insurance and credit ratings that will force AIG to raise collateral it does not have. Faber added that if AIG's book value falls below a certain level, it will trigger default in some of its debt instruments, according to people familiar with the situation.

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have already provided AIG assistance of over $150 billion. AIG officials have not offered comment, Faber said.

CNBC said talks are focused on how the company can swap some of the debt held by the government for equity in AIG. Faber said the problem is that the government's ownership stake cannot exceed its current 79.9 percent, leaving officials to try and find a creative way to transfer value to the U.S. in exchange for AIG reducing its debt so that it can then borrow more from the government to meet its collateral calls.

AIG has borrowed roughly $40 billion from a $60 billion credit facility provided it by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. If it can find a way to pay that down by swapping equity, it hopes to take it back up to a level that will allow it to meet its collateral and capital calls, Faber said.

Officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have not returned calls.

[What poetic irony. They may as well take it off the hook.]

AIG's board is scheduled to meet this Sunday night in hopes of hammering out an agreement with the government, CNBC reported.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?
1 comment
Read more

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici
Post a Comment
Read more

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba
70 comments
Read more