These sales bring to 10 the total number of AIG units sold to pay back the government's bailout. It would seem that the capital markets are taking care of moving AIG out of its current financial hole, helping it to disassemble, as it should, in proper and orderly steps.
The disassembling is not stopping former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, however, from continuing to pursue his thinly veiled bid to regain control of his former company. Not only is he painting his successors as both the creators of AIG's current financial mess and incompetent to cope with it, he's also made friends with "Not Me."
"Not Me," you might remember, was a little character in Bil Keane's old cartoon "The Family Circus." Shaped like a ghostly Weeble, the cute little transparent feller, sporting the words "Not Me" on his belly, generally turned out to be to blame for any household transgression, be it spilt milk, a broken vase, or mud tracked into the house.
Unfortunately for Greenberg, his "Not Me" defense is dead on arrival. Credit default swaps were enriching AIG's investment portfolio since at least 2001, four years before Greenberg's ouster, which came due to finite reinsurance, another scandal on his watch. He'll most likely continue his maneuverings, but he's left a trail of bad blood throughout the insurance and financial industries, even stretching to his own sons, who he forced from the company when they threatened to become powerful enough to succeed him.
Even if he does get AIG back, he may not get back much: the two most recent asset sales totaled just $1 billion, and AIG received $170 billion in government bailout money. A lot of the payments have gone to counterparties, fattening bank bottom lines. But maybe, if enough money eventually changes hands among counterparties, AIG might come through this crisis with some assets left to its name. Stay tuned ...
