AIG – News Stories About AIG - Page 5

Former AIG Chief Greenberg
to Testify Today

Apr 2, 2009 8:06 AM CDT

Former AIG Chief Greenberg to Testify Today

'I don't feel any responsibility,' 38-year CEO says of AIG

(Newser) - Former AIG chief Maurice “Hank” Greenberg will go before a House committee on Capitol Hill today, testifying about the world-wide conglomerate that is now the most infamous culprit of the financial crisis, despite efforts by both the GOP and current AIG management to undercut his credibility. Greenberg is expected...

Grassley Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot

Apr 1, 2009 10:27 AM CDT

Grassley Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot

Alternate headline for long image right layout: Gaffe Machine Grassley Isn't Sorry / Dek: That's just how we talk in Iowa, he insists

(Newser) - Chuck Grassley has been on a roll. First, he told AIG execs to commit seppuku, then he accused the company of "sucking the t— of the taxpayer." Then, in a back-and-forth with Kent Conrad, he had his YouTube moment: "Oh, you’re good," the Senate budget...

Obama Fully Invested
as CEO-in-Chief

ANALYSIS

Mar 31, 2009 9:16 AM CDT

Obama Fully Invested as CEO-in-Chief

In Detroit and on Wall St., president decides to run things his way

(Newser) - Though he entered office with relatively little business experience, the past week has seen President Obama assume the role as “the most powerful player in American business today,” Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei write for Politico. “He’s realizing, ‘Hey, the economy’s mine now, and...

AIG's Woes Point to Larger Insurance Crisis

Mar 30, 2009 9:13 AM CDT

AIG's Woes Point to Larger Insurance Crisis

Federal aid may offer AIG a competitive advantage in ailing industry

(Newser) - AIG’s troubles were quickly blamed on a single, obscure wing of the company, but its problems extend to its core life-insurance division—underscoring dangerous weaknesses across the entire industry and pointing to the possibility of a second financial crisis, the Los Angeles Times reports. What's more, by offering AIG...

Geithner on AIG: 'We Had No Good Choices'

TALK SHOW ROUNDUP

Mar 29, 2009 10:53 AM CDT

Geithner on AIG: 'We Had No Good Choices'

Gates backs Obama on Afghanistan; Petraeus says Cheney wrong

(Newser) - Timothy Geithner may have reignited the AIG bonus brouhaha on ABC’s This Week just as calls for his ouster had begun to subside. “We had no good choices. The contracts were set,” he said, insisting Treasury acted quickly to renegotiate the parts of the bonuses it could....

Will the Real Chris Dodd Please Stand Up?

analysis

Mar 27, 2009 12:38 PM CDT

Will the Real Chris Dodd Please Stand Up?

Senator part populist, part bank ally

(Newser) - Chris Dodd is a man of contradictions, writes David Whitford for Fortune. The Democratic senator portrays himself as a populist; he’s passed consumer-protection and family-issues laws, and he staunchly opposed the bankruptcy bill. But he’s also received loads of cash from financial companies, including AIG, and played a...

AIG Honchos Quit Paris Office, Spurring Fears of Default

Mar 26, 2009 7:08 AM CDT

AIG Honchos Quit Paris Office, Spurring Fears of Default

$234B at stake as top managers walk

(Newser) - Two of the top managers at AIG's Paris unit have resigned, reports the Wall Street Journal, leaving the insurer scrambling to avoid potential defaults on $234 billion in derivative transactions. The complicated scenario results from a French law that says regulators must approve of the managers' replacements or else pick...

AIG Bonus Recipients in Europe Cry Blackmail

Mar 25, 2009 7:21 PM CDT

AIG Bonus Recipients in Europe Cry Blackmail

(Newser) - Some AIG executives in Europe think the demands that they return their bonuses are tantamount to "blackmail," Reuters reports. In fact, a compliance officer for Banque AIG unit in London asked UK authorities to determine whether the demands for repayment constitute extortion. He encouraged others in an email...

AIG Employee Tells Liddy:
You Betrayed Us

OPINION

Mar 25, 2009 9:27 AM CDT

AIG Employee Tells Liddy: You Betrayed Us

VP's resignation letter rips cowardly CEO, grandstanding pols

(Newser) - Though he says he’s blameless for the mess that brought down AIG, and worked 14-hour days at $1 a year to help dismantle the insurer, executive Jake DeSantis feels “betrayed” by CEO Edward Liddy—and lets him know in a resignation letter published by the New York Times....

'Professor in Chief' Stern on Recovery

ANALYSIS

Mar 25, 2009 5:49 AM CDT

'Professor in Chief' Stern on Recovery

Hammers budget as key to turnaround in prime-time presser

(Newser) - Last night's prime-time news conference showed Barack Obama at his most serious; tempering his trademark oratorical skills, he became a "placid and unsmiling professor in chief," write Peter Baker and Adam Nagourney in the New York Times. After the frenzy of the previous week, the president went out...

Geithner Asks Congress
for Broad Takeover Powers

Mar 24, 2009 10:37 AM CDT

Geithner Asks Congress for Broad Takeover Powers

Defends actions during AIG bailout

(Newser) - Timothy Geithner today asked Congress for expanded power to take the helm of big, failing institutions like AIG and wind them down in an orderly fashion, Reuters reports. “AIG highlights broad failures of our financial system," Geithner said in unusually spirited testimony before the House Financial Services Committee....

Stocks Pull Back Off Huge Rally

Market Open

Mar 24, 2009 8:44 AM CDT

Stocks Pull Back Off Huge Rally

(Newser) - Stocks pulled back this morning off yesterday’s heady rally. The Dow sank 77 points, after skyrocketing nearly 500 points in yesterday’s session. The S&P and Nasdaq dropped 1.3% and 1.4% respectively. AIG was the big story, with Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke set to testify...

IRS Challenges AIG's Offshore Tax Deals

Mar 24, 2009 8:07 AM CDT

IRS Challenges AIG's Offshore Tax Deals

(Newser) - The IRS is challenging a series of tax-skirting deals engineered by the much-maligned AIG Financial Products unit, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deals exploited differences in international tax codes to reduce tax payments for foreign banks—many of the same banks the US government would later pay to settle...

AIG Bonus Tax Is Stalled, Likely to Die in Senate

Mar 24, 2009 7:33 AM CDT

AIG Bonus Tax Is Stalled, Likely to Die in Senate

Lawmakers likely to let special tax die, with the nod from Obama

(Newser) - With populist outrage cooling and the White House even cooler, the 90% AIG bonus tax that sailed through the House last week is stalled in the Senate, where it's likely to die, reports Bloomberg. Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday this week will be devoted to debating national service and...

Feds Seek Expanded Power
to Seize Shaky Companies

Mar 24, 2009 6:00 AM CDT

Feds Seek Expanded Power to Seize Shaky Companies

Treasury sec should be able to seize non-bank firms, says administration

(Newser) - The Obama administration is expected to ask Congress for expanded powers that would let the Treasury secretary seize insurers, hedge funds, and other non-bank financial companies whose failure would imperil the economy, reports the Washington Post. While negotiations are ongoing, the plans to expand Treasury authority would represent a major...

AIG Renames
Office in Effort
to Rebrand

Mar 23, 2009 8:37 PM CDT

AIG Renames Office in Effort to Rebrand

(Newser) - Workers pulled down an AIG sign in New York City today as the insurer sought to rebrand itself and deflect outrage over executive bonuses, Reuters reports. The company's Manhattan property-casualty office, renamed AIU Holdings Ltd, wasn't the first to change its name since the bailout started last fall. AIG's US ...

AIG Execs
Repaying $50M
in Bonuses: Cuomo

Mar 23, 2009 6:01 PM CDT

AIG Execs Repaying $50M in Bonuses: Cuomo

(Newser) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said today that most of the top bonus recipients at AIG have agreed to return the money, amounting to more than $50 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. Fifteen of the top 20 beneficiaries of $165 million at AIG's Financial Products unit—which played...

Time to Forget AIG and Nab Offshore Cash

OPINION

Mar 23, 2009 11:40 AM CDT

Time to Forget AIG and Nab Offshore Cash

We're fretting about millions in bonuses, while firms hide billions

(Newser) - Everyone’s aflutter about the AIG bonuses—but there’s a much more lucrative way to take Wall Street to task than obsessing over $165 million, writes Joe Conason in Salon. The government should instead focus on the billions that financial firms are putting in offshore tax havens. Corporate tax...

White House Aides:
AIG Bonus Tax 'Dangerous'

Mar 23, 2009 7:41 AM CDT

White House Aides: AIG Bonus Tax 'Dangerous'

(Newser) - The White House might not be onboard with bills sprinting through Congress to tax away AIG’s outrage-inducing bonuses. Top White House financial advisers are reacting coolly to the suggestion, the Washington Post reports. “The president has been clear we don’t want to govern out of anger,”...

Spitzer Returns to Blast AIG

Mar 22, 2009 5:18 PM CDT

Spitzer Returns to Blast AIG

Disgraced ex-guv admits his mistakes on CNN, but slams insurer's payments

(Newser) - A humbled Eliot Spitzer re-entered the limelight last week with an interview on CNN, admitting that he "failed in a very important way." But the former New York governor, ousted by a prostitution scandal last year, also took aim at AIG, calling it "at the center...