Image courtesy of flickr/John Wardell
AIG disclosed some of the firms that benefited from the government bailout. Essentially, the government money was largely used to pay off other firms. I have a few comments.
1. AIG’s customers were either using AIG for hedging positions or speculative positions. This was mainly done through Credit Default Swaps. These CDS essentially “insure” risky corporate debt – if the CDS is used along with a position in corporate debt. For example, you could buy Ford bonds and simultaneously protect against a default by purchasing CDS from someone like AIG. You are hedged but (and this is a big but) only fully hedged if AIG stays in business.
2. For the hedgers, they failed to properly take the risk of the insurer into account. Parties on the other side of these contracts need to share some of the responsibility. Goldman, for example, was not doing business with the U.S. government – they were doing business with a corporation. This is not the same thing as Goldman having a savings account where the FDIC is covering $250,000 – yet that is how we are treating it. The U.S. taxpayer should not be obligated to make whole all these counterparties who miscalculated the risk of AIG. We are bailing out bad risk management and it is not fair to the American taxpayer. As for the speculators, why should they be bailed out? It’s like bailing out someone who lost at the craps table.
3. It is not surprising that many of the counterparties are foreign. I don’t think the foreign firms should be treated differently. Domestic firms, foreign firms, municipalities, all failed in their risk management. They all should bear some of the cost.
4. From the AIG press release:
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) recognizes the importance of upholding a high degree of transparency with respect to the use of public funds. As a result, after close consultation with the Federal Reserve, AIG is disclosing information identifying certain credit default swap counterparties, municipal counterparties and securities lending counterparties.
What does “certain” mean? Does it mean “a select number”? Does it mean “”all”? If it was “all”, why didn’t they say “all”. How can they call this a “high degree of transparency”?
5. The real story here is for someone to figure out how much more the American taxpayer is potentially on the hook for. AIG has been to the trough four times and now has $180 billion of our money, roughly $1,200 for every working (and seeking work) American. It seems like there was little or no due diligence done on the original government dole out. Transparency to me implies a level of disclosure such that we can figure out the future obligations. How much more will they likely need? $50b, $100b, $300b? We have no way of determining this. This type of forward looking analysis needs to be done as a prerequisite for any future taxpayer money.
6. The other sub-story here is size. AIG has many good business units. However, because they were a conglomerate, the good businesses are being punished for the incompetence of a small number of their business units. With smaller specialized units, we would not be in this situation. AIG could not make the “systemic risk” AKA “too big to fail” argument (as they do on their website).
7. The final sub-story is the following. The U.S. taxpayer is “the” stakeholder in AIG. It is not clear to me that the corporate governance in AIG has shifted from maximize shareholder value to ‘do what’s best for the American economy’. For example, full transparency is necessary. Uncertainty about the future health of AIG and the size of future government obligations, works against the recovery of the U.S. economy.
Read the AIG release here.
