Word: trillions
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...says it has written more than 81 million life-insurance policies, with a face value of $1.9 trillion. It covers roughly 180,000 small businesses and other corporate entities, which employ approximately 106 million people. That makes AIG America's largest life and health insurer; second largest in property and casualty. Through its aircraft-leasing subsidiary, AIG owns more than 950 airline jets. Just for good measure, AIG is a huge provider of insurance to U.S. municipalities, pension funds and other public and private bodies through guaranteed investment contracts and other products that protect participants in 401(k) plans...
...That hedge-fund-like unit built up a portfolio of $2.7 trillion in derivatives. AIG FP eagerly offered to insure billions of dollars in derivative portfolios, building up potential liabilities many times its capacity to pay out if the portfolios defaulted. Few financial experts ever imagined the scope of the impending defaults. Neither did regulators. AIG's uncollateralized insurance combine was regulated by Washington's Office of Thrift Supervision, whose task is to watch over savings-and-loan companies, not global insurers. And it wasn't watching...
...Between the CDS and securities-lending fiascoes, AIG still has lots of work to do. Gerry Pasciucco, the new head of AIG FP, is working to whittle down AIG's trading book by $1.1 trillion. Which raises the question, Does he really need those $165 million bonus babies to finish the job? AIG says yes, because they know the trades and the system, but not everyone agrees. "This is an engineering problem," says Rick Bookstaber, a risk expert and the author of A Demon of Our Own Design, which predicted the predicament we're in. "Right now there are probably...
...billion AIG bailout initiated last summer, the $700 billion financial-system booster last fall and the $878 billion stimulus package this winter, convincing Americans that their money isn't being wasted is no easy task. Geithner has said the government may put up as much as $1 trillion in loans and guarantees to subsidize the sale of the toxic assets to private investors. Though the government could get back the money if the assets start trading again, many Americans see it going down a sinkhole. Says Democratic pollster Mark Mellman: "There's a narrative out there in the public mind...
...perception is proving hard to tackle, the reality is even harder: so far few private investors have shown any interest in tapping the trillion-dollar subsidy to buy toxic assets from the banks. Hedge funds and other players all want to know the terms of the sale before they even think about stepping up to the plate. So far, Geithner and Treasury have provided little detail. "The question of how to price the asset is still on the table, unresolved," says Scott Talbott, a top lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry association...