Elizabeth Warren called out AIG, and it backed down.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Ai??AIG would reward taxpayers for their $182 billion bailoutAi??by suing the government over the terms of the rescue.
Bold progressive Elizabeth Warren immediately called out AIG and condemned its behavior:
Beginning in 2008, the federal government poured billions of dollars into AIG to save it from bankruptcy. AIG’s reckless bets nearly crashed our entire economy. Taxpayers across this country saved AIG from ruin, and it would be outrageous for this company to turn around and sue the federal government because they think the deal wasn’t generous enough,” said Warren in a statement. “Even today, the government provides an ongoing, stealth bailout, propping up AIG with special tax breaks — tax breaks that Congress should stop. AIG should thank American taxpayers for their help, not bite the hand that fed them for helping them out in a crisis.
Politico reports this afternoon that AIG’s board met and decided not to join the lawsuit being considered, representing an early victory for Warren and, by extension, American taxpayers.
“It’s just like someone maybe who is drowning in the water and who is saved by some hero and then says, ‘Hey, while you were saving me, you choked me a little bit. So I’m going to sue you.’ That’s simply what AIG is doing. Yesterday, Elizabeth Warren came out very publicly,” explainedAi??Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green on C-SPAN this morning.Ai??”She’s not just keeping her head down, she’s keeping it straight, front and center and said, ‘This is absolutely wrong, this isAi??unconscionable.’ And I think it’s a real breath of fresh air, that someone didn’t use weasly words and beat around the bush but to say bad corporate action is bad corporate action.”Ai??Ai??Watch it:
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Now let the Congress do what Warren suggested: end AIG’s tax breaks.
Im very glad that Senitor Warren is on the job
Senator Warren is the voice of the people and a real leader. She has a healthy view of our nation and her sites on the Big Corporate raiders who are attempting to steal our democracy and the nations wealth in the process. I support her and her efforts.
congress doesnt do anything anymore. especially take money away from CORPORATIONS, remember they are people too..
Um. Did you not read the article??!!
you are an idiot…
Elizabeth Warren brings character, guts and integrity to her newly elected position in American politics. I have every confidence she will do the country proud.
Thank you Elizabeth Warren for voicing what every American with sense was thinking about the ungrateful wretches of AIG. Without our help those shareholders would have been left with worhtless shares. Instead they want more. Please keep up the pressure on all WS ingrates and crooks.
Elizabeth Warren is THE SHIT! Man, I love that woman.
Clinton/ Warren
Oooh.. now you’re talking.
AIG was never going to join the lawsuit anyway, but they had pretend to consider it at a minimum for the sake of shareholders. The public backlash allows AIG an out of other possible lawsuits, such as shareholders suing it for breaching fiduciary responsibility. So Liz actually helped AIG
Way to stand up for the people! Perfect analogy also!!!:):)
People need to remember that individual people made the decisions at AIG to do what they did.
Some of those people were veterans of that other national scandal company Drexel Burnham Lambert who crashed all the Savings and Loans in the late 1980’s.
Those same people simply went to the next big pot of funds _insurance companys- and started pyramiding that money by starting the derivatives group at what had been a sound company.
People need to stop using the names of fictional entities like companies (which after all only exit on a corporate charter piece of paper) and instead name the individuals who did the transactions in the companies.
As history now proves if we had banned the INDIVIDUALS from 1989 from further presence in the financial industry many of this decades biggest frauds would have been stopped way back in 1989.
blaming a corporate name for wrong doing is like blaming a mask for a robbery.
blame the individuals – not the mask they use to cover their identity.
EOxoxo
Indeed. I completely agree. Take off the corporate masks!
We need to pull an “Iceland” and jail the bankers. I hope Elizabeth calls out the b.s. of letting HSBC off the hook too. Banks are who have thrown economies out of whack globally by loaning more money than governments can afford to pay back. They’ve done the same thing on the smaller scale of mortgages. Loaning money to people who could not afford the home to start with much less the ridiculous balloon payments or the second mortgage granted for the downpayment. Banks that used to demand your first born and hella collateral before granting you a loan, now just throw money around AND pay huge bonuses to the clowns who orchestrate it. Yes. Banks, especially mega-banks need to be brought to heel. Screw “less government” we need to get back to regulating banking and Wall St.
The difference is that corporations profit or sink as collective entities. That’s the important thing to remember. They actually use their entity as a way to shield individual liability
The villainy of these scum knows no bounds. Why do crazies target schools when there are way better targets out there?
I’m a big fan of Elizabeth Warren, and I’m glad she’s in the Senate.
BUT
When you look at the facts of this threatened suit, Warren really had nothing to do with it. The former AIG CEO wants to bring suit and wanted AIG to bring the suit along with him. The board had to listen to his rationale for the suit, and they turned him down. Now, he might still try to sue the government on his own (he is a nutjob), but AIG is not a part of it and it’s unlikely they ever would have been.
One HUGE problem currently is the “Foxification” of the news, turning everything into a political tit for tat. It was great for Warren and other people to say why the AIG suit was a bad idea, but are cluelessly as AIG behaved in the past, it’s unlikely the board was ever going to join in on this suit.
Thank you, Laurie Mann, your explanation sounds quite reasonable. I love Warren, too, but if she had the power to change things just by making a statement, our country wouldn’t be in this mess.
Any company who was saved from bankruptcy or helped by the government during this last down-turn, who is suing, is not culpable, but their officers and management are. Those are the ones who need to go to jail for slapping their benefactors in the face.
Rudy, it’s ONE person (a former AIG CEO). AIG has done many bad things in the past, but they seem to be trying to reform. As of now, AIG is not planning to join the suit a former CEO may be bringing.
KK, thanks.
This is bullshit and anyone with half a brain knows Elizabeth Warren had no impact on the AIG. Decision. Grow up!
Well, I thought at the time this came up, what a great guy this Hank Greenberg must be. Here he runs a crooked scam operation, gets bailed out by the government, never goes to jail and now wants to sue the government over the deal! Sweet! What good ole Hank should spend his time doing is thanking his God that he has a friend in the White house who has has a policy that not one, not even Jamie Dimon, the “Capo di tutti capi’, will go to jail under his watch!
But hey, why not keep trying to get more if no one is going to try to stop you? They have gotten away with this for about 30 years now and it looks like there will not be a President or a Congress to stop them going forward.