Comments on: BREAKING: Fed Rescues AIG with $85 Billion Loan (bailout) for 80% Ownership Stake

By: average joe

average joe — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:46:05 +0000

Bush said he’s doing it because it will help the american people??? I would rather see government bail out a steel mill or a ship yard in small town america that has to close because it’s cheaper to do it overseas. I’ve seen small towns disappear because of these things. I bet we could save a lot more towns and help a lot more american families if we used that 85 Bil. to pump it into local economies. I would love to see a study on how many americans would actually be personally impacted if AIG went bankrupt. I guess Hugo Chavez had the right idea when he nationalized the oil companies. Now we have a nationalized Insurance Co. What’s next???
I can’t believe it, America is technically bankrupt!

By: Les

Les — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:16:23 +0000

Someone please help me out on this,The fed gets 80% of AIG just to loan money and STILL gets paid back,right. I guess that is 80% of whats left of AIG? The stock holders get?

By: Clairvoyant

Clairvoyant — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:47:14 +0000

It appears that AIG has both liquidity and solvency problems. The government can help with liquidity by providing loans. However, what can the Feds do about solvency? Hand taxpayers cash to bondholders? I don’t think so!

By: Tech blog

Tech blog — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:28:20 +0000

I dunno how much its gonna be good….There were two companies, i heard of really getting dashed….

One was AIG and the other Lehmann Bros….Yes, saving one of them might work for many homes, but what about the other one….

You know i have mixed views for this issue….

By: Brock

Brock — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:55:03 +0000

There was another option: let it fail. The real question is: what happens if AIG fails? Would it be worse than this $85 billion equity purchase?

By the way, this isn’t a bailout. It’s an equity sale, and the terms are not that different than the terms Abu Dhabi got when it bought 5% of Citibank earlier this year. The differences are in the size of the deal and the amount of equity remaining to the original shareholders. The Fed drove a hard bargain.