Talk about chutzpah! The government, rightly or wrongly, pulls AIG from the brink of bankruptcy and now the beneficiary cries foul. Former AIG chief, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, is suing our government for $25 billion claiming that the bailout/takeover of 80% of shares essentially robbed AIG shareholders without due compensation. If the government had not stepped in with $70 billion of our tax dollars plus $110 billion from the Fed, the shares would have become worthless. Do we need a good-samaritan rule to protect the government from frivolous banksters?
Read more at MSNBC Bottomline or a surprizingly balanced FOX piece.
– Iron Filing
4 Comments
Let’s give Hank the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was concerned that the OWS movement was becoming fragmented, so he wanted to offer himself as a martyr that everyone can rally against.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the courts ruled in Hank’s favor – and decided that either (a) the government couldn’t selectively choose which firms to save (TBTF…) or (b) the government couldn’t intervene and takeover a company to save the economy without stockholder approval?
The “Fox News” piece is “surprisingly balanced” because it isn’t by Fox News. They reprinted it from the AP.
BTN -thats probably what will happen. Then every other bailed out company including GM will get in line to sue the lifeguard. We shouldn’t have given them 1 dime. Let free markets be free.