Monday, December 6, 2010

Fallen Giant: The Amazing Story of Hank Greenberg and AIG

Clark Troy submits:

Along with Goldman Sachs, AIG (AIG) was 2009's favorite whipping boy. AIG Financial Products exposed the global financial system as a whole to risks of which AIG corporate seemed blithely unaware until it was much too late to do anything about them. The scandal around bonus payments to AIG FP staff exposed deep and volatile fault lines around general attitudes towards compensation on Wall Street, and investigations into the AIG bailout and the fact that AIG FP's counterparties -- especially Goldman Sachs -- got paid out 100 cents on the dollar, poured more flames on the fire of populist ire.

As 2009 gave way to 2010 and AIG started to right its ship under the leadership of CEO Bob Benmosche, a core question remained: To what extent was AIG FP a reflection of AIG's corporate culture, and to what extent was it an aberration? AIG had surely already been in hot water since the accounting, bid-rigging, and finite reinsurance scandals had brought about the defenestration of Maurice Greenberg, who had been only the firm's second CEO since its 1919 founding. That said, one doesn't grow a company to $100 billion on sleight of hand and skullduggery alone. AIG was and remains a very real and world-leading insurance company. At the end of the day, was AIG FP the one bad apple that needn't have spoiled the whole bunch?


Complete Story »

Lauren Conrad Arielle Kebbel Jessica Paré Leelee Sobieski Teri Hatcher

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