Maybe Hank Greenberg wasn't so crazy

Hank isn't crazy, he's just a slimeball who made a company out of manipulating bureaucrats and others. One day, the bluff that is AIG was called, and they were holding nothing. Now, he's manipulating any friendly ear he gets. Check this out:

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/greenberg-i-dont-feel-any-responsibil

"I swear, officer, it wasn't me."

Hank Greenberg was a great slugger and if you listened to my father the only reason he didn't break Babe Ruth's 60 home run record (w/o steroids) is that they wouldn't pitch to him because the baseball powers didn't want that sacred record to be held by a Jewish guy.

Hank is no angel in this. I share your outrage. It's interesting that Goldman may not be an innocent either. What Greenberg did was worse.

Liz, I also thought that the article was referring to the baseball player Hank Greenberg. LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCYyfR4fC_M

A very good documentary. He was very unafraid at a time when many Jewish people were a little frightened. And he didn't play in part of the World Series to instead attend synagogue on Yom Kippur. He played for Detroit, but Jewish people from the Bronx and Brooklyn rooted for him.

Saw the documentary on him at the Film Forum. Agree 100%

I guess what comes around goes around, now it's the non Jews that are afraid. Greenspan, Bernanke, Blankfein, Fuld, Cayne, Greenberg, Madoff, Frank, thanks for the gumball.

disgusting comment.

"He played for Detroit, but Jewish people from the Bronx and Brooklyn rooted for him."

Don't you find that a bit disgusting that ones religious beliefs would be the basis for support. Makes me want to vomit. I would prefer if race, religion or sexual preference were irrelevant. They tend to be the root of most evil in the world.

These Goldman articles are getting to be as content-free as the NYT real estate articles.

"But Goldman, according to interviews with former A.I.G. executives, would allow that only if it also got to keep the $7 billion it had already received from A.I.G. Goldman wanted to keep the initial insurance payouts and the securities in order to profit from any future rebound."

Really? If I buy SPY from Joe at $150 and it drops to $80, and then I want to sell it back to Joe, Joe gets to keep the $70 difference and profit from any future rebound. Fascinating! Let's write an article.

You're an asshole.

"Don't you find that a bit disgusting that ones religious beliefs would be the basis for support."

For that matter, why should proximity be a basis for support? I find NYer's particular prediliction for NY teams to be disgusting.

rs, i guess it's ok to call people names? if you think it's ok.

this may be apochryphal (sp?) but i heard a story (from someone who worked at aig, who had heard the story, etc.). some youngster was in the elevator, hank steps in, youngster makes some comment, hank says don't you know who i am? youngster says sorry, sir i don't. youngster arrives at office to phone ringing to announce termination.

urban legend, probably. more than a hint of truth, probably also.

p09 won't take this well, but i agree with inonada, i hate the yankees and their ability to buy results. these days i root only for teams in areas with the most devastated economies. lord knows they can use the cheer. go lions!! go saints!!

Hank Greenberg was a great baseball player during the 1930's and he was Jewish which was unusual at that time for a baseball player. Now there are many major league baseball players such as Ryan Braun, Ian Kinsler, Kevin Youkilis, Scott Feldman who are all Jewish. Hank Greenberg was someone that Jewish people looked to during the 1930's as a source of pride since they often felt unassimiliated into American society at that time and terrified at what was happening throughout Europe.

patient09 -
Not sure how old you are, but peoples from certain groups where not treated kindly in the USA at that time - say 1930s - and were forced to stay in their own homogenous communities. To Jew in the Bronx, they probably realized Hank Greenberg would have gladly had dinner with them, whereas Lou Gehrig or Joe D, maybe not. I rooted for Roberto Clemente as a kid because my Dad had known him in Puerto Rico, but I didn't like the Pirates, I don't think liking someone from your ethnic group means you hate everyone else.

AR: Sports teams are, by design, products of the hometown. Geography, fan base, funding..etc..etc..proximity IS the reason for support.

Well said boricua21

but p09, we're a city of many transplants. the husband persistently roots for the redskins (btw, i find them almost as distasteful as i do the yankees, and i find his hatred of the cowboys acceptable but tenuous given his love of the redskins) and the orioles (which, given that i am a mariners fan, i kind of get).

i for one find the stadium expenditures gross and unacceptable. and i find the yankees somewhat acceptable only because they figured so prominently in seinfeld. material is always good.

rs, calling people assholes? although given your UD handle, i guess i understand.

LOL.
I should folow your excellent example. But in the case of racist garbage totally appropriate. Don't tell me you condone bigotry?

a.r. let's get this straight, you support bigotry and the economic disadvantaged?

no i don't support bigotry, in the slightest. you support a lack of empathy. for others not similarly situated.

Good you don't condone bigotry
And spending other people's money is not compassion.

Lobster...Kevin Youkillis is Jewish??? The Red Sox??? Oy...Its is a shonda for the neighbors.

Serioiusly, Lobster is absolutely right. Hank Greenberg was a very important figure for Jewish Americans as we was the first Jewish star in the national pastime. Jews could be Supreme Court justices, movie moguls, brilliant scientists and gifted artists but it was hard for a young kid to think of themself as "100% American" until they had a baseball hero to call their own. While Greenberg did not have to overcome the barrieers faced by Jackie Robinson, he was something of an equivilant figure among Jews. At least until Sandy Kofax came along who had the good luck not only to be Jewish but to play for the initially Brooklyn Dodgers...not only the geographic "bullseye" but a team that Jewish people throughout the country tended to look on favorably because of they had broken the ban on African American players.

P09...I think you are looking at a mid-20th century situation from a 21st century perspective. Things aren't perfect now but they are a lot better than they were!

america's involvement in WWII?

good luck with that one.

1 - Hank Greenberg was one of the top 5 hitters ever

2 - Hank Greenberg from AIG is one of the greatest business minds ever. Had Spitzer not got a hard on for him and removed him from AIG what happened may have been averted.

3 - If what happened with GS ever came out and the average person could understand it there would be riots in the streets over it, it could be the greatest heist ever

AIG would have occurred regardless. A company the size of AIG and nobody knew what was going on except a few people in AIGFP.

Elliot Spitzer by getting the great man Greenberg thrown out destroyed AIG and caused their collapse; Spitzer should stick to his call girls

Sam & Julia: "I swear officer, it wasn't me.". You do realize the guy still owned or controlled 12% of the company and that the vast majority of the "insurance" contracts that led to AIG's collapse were written under Greenberg's careful supervision? Yeah, you're a real great businessman if you repeatedly thwart regulators, cajole, and hide your risk as you try to juice profits by selling insurance you don't understand. Except, one day 40 years into your shenanigins, there comes something much larger than a regulator to bitch-slap you into reality. It's called the market, and it won't take sweet-talk for an answer, and it won't twist to your desire.

Spitzer didn't take AIG down. AIG took AIG down. Insurance regulation is there to keep companies too stupid to understand their risks from writing policies they can't pay out. However, if you build a company to thwart all efforts at risk management, all will seem fine, great even, until you need to start paying on your policies.

Putting all that aside, the fact of the matter is that this guy managed to lose tens of billions of dollars and most of his net worth at the first sign of trouble. Given all the great business minds out there, you consider this "the best"? He's spending his waning years making up crap to defend his "legacy", crap that a child can see through, repeatedly saying "it wasn't me" and jumping on the bash GS bandwagon as soon as it became popular. Please! One of your f-ing policy holders came to cash in the insurance policy you sold them so willingly and profited on all those years. Now you come bitching and moaning about how the requirement to pay your policy holders has caused you to go belly-up, particularly when no regulator would've allowed you to write the policy had you not hidden it from everyone?

A true American pioneer, sorta like Madoff.

The public has a short memory. Before there was the Credit Default Swap AIG was involved in fraudulent reinsurance deals with side letters. AIG got busted for this and so moved onto the Credit Default swap. Spitzer was right.

Righto, RS. It is true that had they not gotten caught for their other funny business, they would have probably retained their AAA rating, the loss of which sealed their fate. They would have probably gone down anyways, since losses would've eventually triggered the ratings drop. Beyond the issues of stupid bets and a pattern of fraudulent behavior, the dependence of the company on its AAA rating was poor business policy. A "great business mind" leverages a good rating to its advantage. Case in point: take Berkshire Hathaway. They sell 15-year put options and get their counterparties to agree that no margin need be posted. That way, when their creditworthiness drops, it is the other guy who takes a hit. Or else take a look at the fact that part of the $8 billion of bonds they are selling is going for under libor.

Much like the no-money-down option-ARM negative amortization investor who buys multiple homes simultaneously before the debt shows up and "fudges" the part of the application where you certify that you don't have any other loans, Hank's business legacy was to over-leverage a credit rating six ways from Sunday, hiding your risky actions and skirting regulators. It's all great until you hit a bump, and then it all comes crashing down. So what do you do? You default. Then you wait until the mood is right, and you get on TV and say "The evil banks made me take out those loans, and then they kicked me out of house and home".

Pathetic.

"some youngster was in the elevator, hank steps in, youngster makes some comment, hank says don't you know who i am? youngster says sorry, sir i don't. youngster arrives at office to phone ringing to announce termination."

If you worked at AIG and didn't know Hank Greenberg, you should never have been hired. Most firms want to know that people are up to date with current events and things relevant in the financial industry.

So that story is hardly negative. What they should have done is looked through the personnel records to find out who handled the interviews of the kid and looked into why someone so dim got hired.

These days it would be more like a scene from Silent Movie..

BIG PICTURE STUDIOS PARKING LOT

"What's the matter with
you? Don't you know
who I used to be?!"

imonda I totally agree with your last comment.. but the corrupt politicians who blame the banks and big business for the common man's problems are a disgrace.. fannie and freddie and the corrupt politicians and all the people who used their homes as ATM machines plus those who leveraged to speculate on real estate are the cause of the bubble...not traders or bankers or businessmen.. look at the "great man cumo and his crusade to help the working man... what a joke.

One day, I hope to see Congress do an inquiry on it's role in the Financial Crisis.

"What they should have done is looked through the personnel records to find out who handled the interviews of the kid and looked into why someone so dim got hired."

What they should have really done is put someone with half a brain in charge of AIG FP instead of Cassano, who's main virtue was stroking Hank's ego. What that story relates is hubris getting in the way of good business decisions.

Blaming Congress! They're one step removed from the taxpayer. Next, you'll be saying blame the taxpayer, or the American people. What is you, un-American? Hear me now: the American people are the greatest and hardest-working people in the world, and God holds a special place for them. No American would be involved in any of those troubles of which you speak. Obviously, the solution is to revoke the citizenship of all bankers, especially the ones that didn't blow up. In America, we expect that if you are in an industry that brings down the system, you need to come down as well. If you are prudent and manager your risks, you are un-American. Why should you not have been brought down by the housing bubble if Americans have? What makes you so special, using your brain and all, to avoid murky waters?

'one step removed from the taxpayer" Congress and their socialist agenda is what's killing the american people. stop taxing and regulating us the american people to death ..

"all the people who used their homes as ATM machines plus those who leveraged to speculate on real estate are the cause of the bubble...not traders or bankers or businessmen"

The "working man" and his ranch house did not cause the systemic crash of the worlds financial system, they were more pawn than Queen in that game. What a naive comment.

Yes Congress has a responsibility here. Let's not forget C.K. LEE, OTS & AIG. The regulator and person assigned didn't even know what a swap was.

And of course let's not forget that Congress forbid the CFTC from regulating them as well.

http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/fed-central-bank-us-or
"We missed the impact" of the collateral triggers, said C.K. Lee, who ran a little-known team in the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision, or OTS, which oversaw AIG's finance unit. He said the swaps were viewed as "fairly benign products" until they overwhelmed the trillion-dollar company.

http://alexmasterley.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-background-on-aigfp.html
Because it was not an insurance company, A.I.G. Financial Products did not have to report to state insurance regulators. But for the last four years, the London-based unit’s operations, whose trades were routed through Banque A.I.G., a French institution, were reviewed routinely by an American regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision.

A handful of the agency’s officials were always on the scene at an A.I.G. Financial Products branch office in Connecticut, but it is unclear whether they raised any red flags. Their reports are not made public and a spokeswoman would not provide details.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3225213/AIG-trail-leads-to-London-casino.html
In contrast to standard practice, however, AIG Financial Products did not hedge its exposure to a possible fall in the CDS market. In a footnote to AIG’s 2007 accounts spotted by Forbes magazine, the company declared: “In most cases AIGFP does not hedge its exposures to credit default swaps it has written.”

kiethb... many people are to blame for the debacle and some were the bankers; but to absolve the people who took out massive debt then walked away; and then the corrupt politicians demonizing "Wall Street" for political gain ... Always creating class warfare for their own corrupt power. go ahead defend the corrupt politicians exploiting the issue..

Keithb "they were more pawn than Queen" always someone else's fault... I didn't read the fine print i got scammed... i am just a little pawn please someone take care of me.

"go ahead defend the corrupt politicians exploiting the issue.."

juliag you sound like you listen to a lot of Beck or Rush. Don't put words in my mouth, I said NOTHING about defending the politicians. Look up "Classical Liberalism".

It's just too convenient for Government officials to not acknowledge any responsibility with regards to AIG and especially Fannie & Freddie. Maybe some officials honestly believed they were doing the right thing. I think others allowed political considerations to trump common sense.

Borrowers were not acting responsible at a micro level, but I'm partially inclined to agree with Keith B in that politicians were big enablers by mandating that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac source funds for the crap mortgages, which the Fed refused to regulate(but could as seen in this press release(http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20080714a.htm), and then telling banks that they didn't have to reserve capital against AAA rated designed to fail mortgages(ok this is more BASEL maybe).

What I find annoying though are the borrowers who over-borrows and then comes to the tax payer for bail-out. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

KeithB, virtually everyone I know who bought in the bubble years was doing so with visions of low-risk financial gains. The risk-blind greed that the bankers had is a mere reflection of the population at large, their elected officials, etc. The banks are run by people with the same greed and flaws as the general population at large. To single them out misses the depth of the problem.

Our government is founded on the basis that humans cannot be trusted. Perhaps our financial systems should be based around an assumption of pervasive risk-blind greed in everyone as well.

"Always do business as if the person you're doing business with is trying to screw you, because he probably is. And if he's not, you can be pleasantly surprised." David Mamet

Kiethb individual liberty, free market capitalism and the objective rule of law... look that up instead of labeling people....

Large Jewish guy playing baseball... I think that is pretty damn crazy.

> "He played for Detroit, but Jewish people from the Bronx and Brooklyn rooted for him."

> Don't you find that a bit disgusting that ones religious beliefs would be the basis for support.
> Makes me want to vomit. I would prefer if race, religion or sexual preference were irrelevant. They
> tend to be the root of most evil in the world.

So, did you vomit when Jackie Robinson got cheered, too?

?

I'm serious.

Just want to see if this is a consistent belief, or just anti-semitism.

There's no doubt. The guy is a Jew hater.