Robert Benmosche, chief executive of American International Group (AIG), feels so vindicated by his company’s turnaround from bailout-recipient to a company with actual value that he told the Wall Street Journal he was wondering whether he was going to get phone calls saying he was right:
When did Benmosche read “Atlas Shrugged”? After his company received a $182.3 billion bailout from taxpayers, where Uncle Sam became chief shareholder, owning 92 percent of his company? I can’t seem to recall the part of the book where Rand said that your company should follow the Federal Reserve in lockstep and not disclose important information to taxpayers regarding what you’re doing with their money:
The New York Fed took over negotiations between AIG and the banks in November 2008 as losses on the swaps, which were contracts tied to subprime home loans, threatened to swamp the insurer weeks after its taxpayer-funded rescue. The regulator decided that Goldman Sachs and more than a dozen banks would be fully repaid for $62.1 billion of the swaps, prompting lawmakers to call the AIG rescue a “backdoor bailout” of financial firms.
Yes, Mr. Benmosche, you’re a regular John Galt. I’ll be sure to call you and tell you just that.
