AIG bailout
 

What do you guys think about this? I think if a private institution fails we should not be on the hook for it as a society. If a stockholder buys into a company they also have to accept the risk that it could fail. If the stocks take a hit then they take a hit. This seems like one big cycle of bullshit to me. They(AIG) take on MBS from loans made to people who could never pay them back, and record the interest as profit without worrying about the long term consequences. Then those fail and the government takes more borrowed money from the taxpayers and bails them out. So they win, the bank who originated the stupid loans wins, and the home builders win. Who looses? the people who had some equity in the home but then lost everything when their ARM's went up, and the taxpayers.

Re: AIG bailout
 

---- banks
/thread

Re: AIG bailout
 

Yeah, it's bullshit but it's only going to get worse before it gets any better.

Re: AIG bailout
 

yeah its ------- bullshit to the max, if banks start making money they dont just dump the profits into the us gov. let the fuckers fail, i dont have any thing to do with any of them.

Re: AIG bailout
 

AIG is not a bank. They are the largest insurance company in the country. When they take your money for insurance premiums they invest it in other markets to lower insurance premiums for people and attract more customers. AIG's capital was heavily tied in the mortgage/housing market... and we know how that ended up.

That being said, I think if companies make poor choices on investing their money they should not get a blank check from the government to "fix things". Companies fail for a reason, just like animals get eaten in the wild... free market is the cornerstone of capitalism.

Re: AIG bailout
 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122156561931242905.html

It's official now, they're getting bailed out.

Even if our government didn't step in and bail them out, a foreign country/business/bank would have. There was too much foreign pressure here for us to not do something about it.

"AIG was a major seller of "credit-default swaps," essentially insurance against default on assets tied to corporate debt and mortgage securities. Weakness at AIG could force financial institutions in the U.S., Europe and Asia that bought these swaps to take write-downs or losses."

As far as why AIG is in trouble, their insurance business is great, but their "financial products" are ------- them real good.

"AIG's cash squeeze is driven in large part by losses in a unit separate from its traditional insurance businesses. That financial-products unit, which has been a part of AIG for years, sold the credit-default swap contracts designed to protect investors against default in an array of assets, including subprime mortgages."

Housing market took a ----, and AIG was left holding the bag.

Re: AIG bailout
 

to all the idiots..


THE FED IS NOT PART OF OUR GOV'T, it is simply a huge global bank that supplies the US and major banks with money

Re: AIG bailout
 

If you're talking to me...

I'll quote the first line of the article I linked: "The U.S. government seized control of American International Group Inc. -"

Re: AIG bailout
 

i use to have AIG insurance a while back lol.

Re: AIG bailout
 

The real question people need to be asking is who is going to bail out the Federal Reserve when it fails?

Re: AIG bailout
 

You're funneh.

Re: AIG bailout
 

GG you lose

Re: AIG bailout
 

the gov gave them a loan i thought... it will have to be paid back, but we all know that probably isn't going to happen. too many million dollar salaries in companies like that for people who do less than we do.

Re: AIG bailout
 

Kids start to putting your money under your bed cash money

Re: AIG bailout
 

Fiat money is worthless, look at Africa.. they have 10bn notes... cause of a fucked up economy and inflation.

Save tangible things.. silver, gold, copper, metals... etc..etc.


Personally I'm opting for saving: Ammunition, Guns, Silver, and water.

Re: AIG bailout
 

+1

If the economy is going to take so much of a ---- then having cash stuffed under your matress it will just become more and more worthless as the days go by.

Re: AIG bailout
 

I'm just gonna move back to the res and dissapear into the woods and live like we used. :6

Re: AIG bailout
 

Did the government not think about the negative publicity that all of this has caused for AIG? :l

You can loan AIG 10 trillion dollars, but if no one continues to use their products or services then they will ultimately FAIL! This company has taken a huge hit in its reputation. Seriously, think about it for one second, a company that sells products to manage money cannot manage their own? :S

I can assure you that if I need some life insurance or help with my money, a company that was recently almost bankrupt is not going to get my business.

Re: AIG bailout
 

You'll come crawling back when you run out of fire water ;)

Re: AIG bailout
 

1. Putting your money under your mattress is the worst thing in the world you can do right now. Buy 3 stocks of google instead or put it in a savings account. Keeping your money in your house is counter productive on so many levels.

2. AIG got fucked by buying into sub prime mortgages. It has nothing to do with their services but how they reinvested their wealth. The only reason people will take their business else where with AIG is if they don't believe they will pay out on their insurance claims. Now that they have $85 billion dollars from the FED, it shouldn't be too much of a concern.

3. This economy is terrible for people who work in the banking industry and people who have their money invested in these companies. If you don't fit either bill, you have nothing to worry about. In fact, there is a great opportunity for young people with some money saved to become millionaires by age 50 if you are smart about things. Houses are dirt cheap right now. If you have good credit and some money saved for a down payment and are "waiting things out" you are ------- retarded. Housing prices are pretty much as low as they will go. Some people are predicting another 6-9 months before it reaches the absolute bottom, which is when I hope to have enough scratch to make a down payment on something. Also there are a lot of stocks you can buy for dick and have the potential to make you bundles.

Again, the economy sucks on a large scale, because the rich just got a whole lot poorer, but the poor and middle class should be okay. This is really a Wall Street Manhattan problem. If you don't work there, don't be concerned is the feeling I get. Also, if you have money in a WaMu account, change banks.

Re: AIG bailout
 

This had absolutely nothing to do with the insurance products AIG offers, which has been very successful for them. They were left holding the bag when a lot of mortgages turned bad basically.

I'll say it again, AIG is a solid insurance company, what isn't so solid is their choice to get down with mortgages and ----.

Bigwig hit the nail on the head, if you actually have good credit and good legit income you can still get a mortgage and find an incredible deal on a house with all the short sales and foreclosures going on. Anybody with a mind for investment will see this as a great opportunity, not necessarily a crisis.

Re: AIG bailout
 

I understand that the insurance part of the company was solid, but obviously the financial part of the company has almost caused the whole company to crumble. This mean that if you had a life insurance policy and died the same day the company went under = you got screwed. Their insurance is only good if they have the money to pay your claim.

I also still believe that the "services" they offer are no longer valid. They made extremely piss poor decisions in handling the money. They new the funds were coming from sub prime mortgages, and how risky that market was. They took a risk in counting on those funds and they did not come through. IMO they went to the casino, gambled, lost big, and got bailed out by our tax dollars. I wish "Big Brother" was there for me when I went to Tunica. ::)

Re: AIG bailout
 

how so??

its not our governments money, its the federal reserve's which is funded by private global banks

Re: AIG bailout
 

I'm not sure I agree with you 100% but I think you have valid points. You pay AIG to insure you. From there they invest your money how they please with the end result you still are insured and whatever money they make, they make. It's kind of like a bank, where you give them money, and they do what they want with it but you still have your money at the end of the day whether they invest it well or not. With a company like Lehman's, they are given money to make more money. Their service is based directly on investing funds. The end result is the same, the companies fucked up. But the reason you gave the company the money is a drastically different. It's why bank accounts are federally insured. It's not your fault the bank invested your money poorly. Just like its not your fault you went to the biggest insurance agency in the US to get insurance and they can't pay their bills despite you always paying yours.

Re: AIG bailout
 

---- gold and precious metals.Tools and weapons i totally agree with.Yes our money system can crash whenever it wants it has happened before in other countries.