Comment 31791

By JonC (registered) | Posted June 16, 2009 at 23:24:30

It was (is) even worse than that. Even the insurers were (still are) leveraging more than the value of the company.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-01-28/n...

"The heart of darkness was the AIG Financial Products (AIGFP) office in London, where a large proportion of the derivatives were written. AIG had placed this unit outside American borders, which meant that it would not have to abide by American insurance reserve requirements. In other words, the derivatives clerks in London could sell as many products as they could write—even if it would bankrupt the company.... They sold "protection"—this Runyonesque term was favored—worth more than three times the value of parent company AIG. How could they have not known that they were putting at risk the largest insurer in the world and all the businesses and individuals that it covered?

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