Screw this, let AIG die:

At Calculated Risk:

AIG: A Black Hole?

American International Group Inc. owes Wall Street's biggest firms about $10 billion for speculative trades that have soured ...

The $10 billion in other IOUs stems from market wagers that weren't contracts to protect physical securities held by banks or other investors against default. Rather, they are from AIG's exposures to speculative investments unrelated to insurance, which were essentially bets on the performance of bundles of derivatives linked to subprime mortgages, commercial real-estate bonds and corporate bonds.

From the comment thread at CR, this, apparently from behind the WSJ paywall:

"The Federal Reserve, which lent AIG billions of dollars to stay afloat, has no immediate plans to help AIG pay off the speculative trades."

No immediate plans. That's a relief.


posted by Quiddity at 12/10/2008 09:28:00 AM