Word: rareness
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...rare interview, former CEO Greenberg, who is suing AIG and being sued by the company over financial-management issues, tells TIME that once the company lost its top credit rating, AIG FP should have stopped writing swaps and hedged, or reinsured, its existing ones. But Cassano's unit doubled down after the spring of 2005, writing more and more subprime-linked swaps as the ratings plunged, which made the possible need for collateral enormous in the event its debt was downgraded. The downgrades occurred in 2008. "Of course they were going to run out of money," says Greenberg. He adds...
...Which helps explain why, at least for now, Geithner benefits from a rare bipartisan agreement. Republicans have largely been reluctant to scare away a Treasury chief who has roots in the Bush era and understands their benefactors' core businesses; Democrats are even more reluctant to publicly criticize the President's choice at a moment of economic peril. "I have complete confidence in Tim Geithner and my entire economic team," Barack Obama said. "He is making all the right moves in terms of playing a bad hand." Still, a longtime Treasury observer says, "his margin for error has been reduced...
...hijab when she was 26, despite fierce objections from her parents. (Her father was an Egyptian diplomat, her mother a society figure.) But last year, el-Marsafy's mother, now in her 60s, began wearing the veil too. That is a common story. Forty years ago, Islamic dress was rare in Egypt. Today, more than 80% of women are estimated to wear the hijab, and many put it on only after their daughters...
...students in an enthusiastic chorus of "Penis! Penis! Penis! Vagina! Vagina! Vagina!" "Until they can use the real names for their body parts without giggling," she explains, "you can't talk to them about anything serious." The attractive 27-year-old with straight blond hair is one of those rare souls who not only tolerate middle schoolers but also enjoy them in all their overcaffeinated, hormone-addled, hyperkinetic glory...
...started selling its bond ratings to investors in 1916; Fitch followed suit in 1924. In the 1930s, federal regulators began using these private ratings to evaluate the safety of banks' holdings, among other things, but the importance of the agencies waned following World War II as bond defaults became rare. The economic turbulence of the 1970s raised the industry's profile again. In 1975, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) deemed certain firms "nationally recognized statistical ratings organizations"--making a sign-off from a ratings agency a necessity for anyone selling debt. But ratings also became a stamp of actuarial...