Comments on: Newspeak or Bankspeak? http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2008/09/16/newspeak-or-bankspeak/ Learn, Network, Invest Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:20:15 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Barbara Grassey http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2008/09/16/newspeak-or-bankspeak/comment-page-1/#comment-60019 Barbara Grassey Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:39:22 +0000 http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/?p=1408#comment-60019 Former AIG Chairman and CEO Hank Greenberg on CNBC this morning was sending a poorly coded plea to the Fed and the U.S. Government to bail out his former company. His constant reiteration of the phrases national security, national interest and at one point, he even had the egocentric cajones to call AIG a NATIONAL TREASURE, as if AIG was the Lincoln Monument or something, was nothing short of thinly veiled begging for corporate welfare. It should be noted that most of his retirement and wealth is tied up in AIG stock. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid. If the government is going to continue corporate bailouts, it needs to take a stake in the companies as any other corporation would do, so that the taxpayers who will ultimately pay for this will share in the upside when these companies come out of their so-called temporary liquidity problems. Frankly, I dont think it is the governments job to become a corporate partner but if it is stepping into that role, at least strike a good bargain. Joe Biden showed clear thinking when he said AIG and other companies begging for bailouts need to open their books. No one wants to buy a pig in a poke. But I have a feeling that opening the books is not going to give any of us a warm, fuzzy feeling about bailing these guys out. AIG is using the excuse that there isnt time for an inspection of the books. And there isnt. But that doesnt mean that as a tax payer I have to buy something sight unseen. My hairdresser has a cartoon hanging in her salon. It says, A LACK OF PLANNING ON YOUR PART DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN EMERGENCY ON MY PART. It is telling when a hairdresser has more corporate savvy than Wall Street. There is a lot to be said for listening to those in the trenches. Barbara Former AIG Chairman and CEO Hank Greenberg on CNBC this morning was sending a poorly coded plea to the Fed and the U.S. Government to bail out his former company. His constant reiteration of the phrases national security, national interest and at one point, he even had the egocentric cajones to call AIG a NATIONAL TREASURE, as if AIG was the Lincoln Monument or something, was nothing short of thinly veiled begging for corporate welfare. It should be noted that most of his retirement and wealth is tied up in AIG stock. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid.

If the government is going to continue corporate bailouts, it needs to take a stake in the companies as any other corporation would do, so that the taxpayers who will ultimately pay for this will share in the upside when these companies come out of their so-called temporary liquidity problems. Frankly, I dont think it is the governments job to become a corporate partner but if it is stepping into that role, at least strike a good bargain.

Joe Biden showed clear thinking when he said AIG and other companies begging for bailouts need to open their books. No one wants to buy a pig in a poke. But I have a feeling that opening the books is not going to give any of us a warm, fuzzy feeling about bailing these guys out. AIG is using the excuse that there isnt time for an inspection of the books. And there isnt. But that doesnt mean that as a tax payer I have to buy something sight unseen.

My hairdresser has a cartoon hanging in her salon. It says, A LACK OF PLANNING ON YOUR PART DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN EMERGENCY ON MY PART. It is telling when a hairdresser has more corporate savvy than Wall Street. There is a lot to be said for listening to those in the trenches.

Barbara

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