Saturday, March 21, 2009

Three Trustees Watch Over AIG

Three trustees (named in January), each paid $100,000, oversee AIG, so the government indirectly runs AIG, but not really. In my continuing quest to understand the dynamics of our failed financial system, I found this Planet Money podcast enlightening. Another good podcast is Science Friday's story on the Wall Street physicists and mathematicians (Quants) who created all the crazy derivatives that no one could understand. Science Friday makes an argument for why quants are not to blame.
L&HI: The Federal Reserve Board of New York has named 3 trustees to control the government’s 79.9% share of American International Group Inc., New York.

The trustees are Jill Considine, a former New York banking commissioner; Chester B. Feldberg, former chairman of Barclays Americas; and Douglas L. Foshee, president and chief executive officer of El Paso Corp.

The New York Fed said the appointments were made with the full support of the Treasury Department.
From Planet Money:
The anger towards AIG has been dominating the headlines this week, but not everyone is seeing red. Ian Bremmer of Eurasia Group says the government has much bigger fish to fry and that AIG outrage is a luxury we can't afford.