Geithner just said AIG companies employ 1 out of 3 Americans?

[Thrill]

Anyone still want to just let them fail?

[ShortnFiery]

1. No let's continue to send the money UP to the wealthiest 1%? Us working people have learned to

live with out much anyway. :eyes:

[atreides1]

2. Prove it.

Where is the data to prove this statement?

[Thrill]

11. Not sure. But kind of helps you understand what Obama was showing

when he was acting like someone had a vest with a bomb on it at that townhall

[Windy]

22. I work in a law firm and AIG backed companies employ me....

They also insure my husband's business. (Electrical contracting and land development)

[LiberalFighter]

32. But they don't employ your husband. And AIG isn't the only client for your law firm.

[avaistheone1]

24. I say bullshit. Let AIG prove it.

I don't for a minute believe they employ 1 in 3 people in this country.

[Wickerman]

3. Perhaps 1 out of 3 Americans pay for the sins of AIG? n/t

[elleng]

4. AIG Companies meaning

among others, those it insures?

[n2doc]

8. Must mean that.

No friggin way they directly employ that many. Simple solution- Break it up and let the financial wing die. The Insurance side has been fine.

[elleng]

9. Has it?

Isn't that the problem, that they can't afford to honor their insurance contracts?

[n2doc]

14. Big difference between conventional insurance, and the crap "derivatives"

and other "financial insurance" stuff the London group has been peddling. AIG used to primarily sell conventional insurance (flood, liability, etc.) and still does. These are tried and true ways of making money without unmanageable risk.

[elleng]

20. I answer myself, having just heard Geithner say

(maybe) that they HONORED all of those contracts.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

21. Michael Hirsch in Newsweek says that perhaps the insurance part is NOT fine

http://www.newsweek.com/id/189917
The Next AIG Scandal?
The firm's problems may extend to its 'healthy' insurance side.

[WeDidIt]

5. AIG is a monopoly

BREAK THAT FUCKER UP!!!

BUST THE TRUST!!!

[avaistheone1]

26. AIG is like a tapeworm sucking the life out of this country,

They need to go.

[joeglow3]

41. Monopoly on what?

We have 2 pretty big insurance companies here (Mutual of Omaha & Berkshire Hathaway)

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Too Big to be Allowed to Exist! nt

[JohnnyBoots]

29. Could it be broken down into different companies under the umbrella of the AIG but people would be

able to buy shares in these new subdivision companies. That could maybe be a big economic shot in the arm that AIG needs.

[Fleshdancer]

7. That doesn't make any sense

According to AIG's profile linked below, the company has 116,000 full time employees.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=AIG


on edit: I re-read the OP...how many companies does AIG have?

[burythehatchet]

34. This the GD-P forum. Nothing is supposed to make sense.

[Igel]

44. The question is, How to read "AIG companies"?

Do we understand it to mean "AIG owned companies"? If so, then it's a stupid remark.

Or do we understand it to mean "companied insured by AIG"? If so, then it's a smart remark.

If you want to believe Geithner's an idiot, he must have meant the first.

If you want to believe Geithner's at least relatively smart, he must have meant the second, or something like it.

His utterance is almost certainly ambiguous. Most of the comments reflect how we parse the ambiguity, and that crucially relies on what we believe about Geithner. In other words, we're not commenting on the facts, but on Geithner, and mask it as comments on the facts. It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or a linguist) to be aware of ambiguity, of when something has multiple readings (either because of the words used or because of the interaction of what's said with real-world knowledge).

AIG has somewhat over 100 companies under its mantle, IIRC; many are small. That still doesn't equal 1/3 of the workforce.

[NashVegas]

10. Which Is Why It Should Be Allowed to Fail

If they've gotten that big and fucked up on this big a scale, how much bigger do we really want them to get?

[ljm2002]

12. Hmmm, let's see now...

...300 million Americans, let's say half of them are working age, that's 150 million -- so he's saying AIG and its subsidiaries employ 50 million people?

C'mon.

[Thrill]

13. I think he's basically talking about all the companies

it basically touches

[ljm2002]

19. Well, hell...

...now we're getting into "6 Degrees of Separation" territory. If you start counting everything some company "touches" then you can make any company seem much bigger than it really is. In any case, such hyperbole is counterproductive and is just another form of lying. If he meant that their business touches 1 out of 3 Americans, then just say that.

Seems to me they're just trying to justify the inflated values of the so-called assets this company is peddling. We still have the primary problem, that our government is willing to buy this crap at 100% of the value that the company says it has, when the private market won't touch it with a 100-foot pole.

[Jennicut]

15. AIG has its strings attached to everything. Its too damn big.

Its time to break the sucker up which essentially Geithner is asking to do today. He wants the power to break up entities like AIG.

[AllentownJake]

16. I'm sure he's counting property, casualty, and investment management

The states have a system and they have reserves for property and casualty. On the investment management all assets are kept in seperate accounts from the company and if anyone has comingled them...well lets just say the penalties from the SEC would be quite severe for that individual.

Its a true statement but a BS one at the same time.

[burythehatchet]

35. No, man, its true. AIG employs 100,000,000 people. And that's just in Manhattan.

They employ 4 billion people worldwide. Their annual revenues are 400 quadrillion dollars.

[AllentownJake]

37. I think he mispoke and meant to say touches

1/3 employees. That could be true given the scope of AIGs businesses outside of CDRs.

[burythehatchet]

47. Actually, if you count reinsurance treaties, direct policies, and special purpose

financing vehicles, 90% of the businesses in America are touched by AIG and its various subsidiaries. But it should also be stated that currently, AIG is in the process of destabilizing the property and casualty market as well. Some of the largest competitors are complaining that AIG is undercutting market prices in a bid to hold on to their renewals. By pricing below market, the effect on the other companies could be catastrophic.

AIG needs to be liquidated in a reasonable fashion. The company has completely gone off the rails (they have always been a company that screwed policyholders during hard markets and screwed competitors during soft markets, but never this bad).

[Supersedeas]

36. just because there is an insured asset doesn't mean employment and jobs are directly

connected to it

[Pirate Smile]

17. AIG insures the companies where one out of three Americans work is how I heard it explained on CNN.

[sharp_stick]

18. I think they need to spin it apart

There is no way a company should ever be allowed to become too big to fail. Right now I think AIG is just that, if it goes belly up as it is the repercussions around the world would be enormous.

Now that we own this behemoth though I think the time may be coming where we can split the sucker up into multiple companies and allow that parasitic financial arm to die the death it deserves.

This is also (IMO) a perfect time to start looking at regulations to stop other organizations from becoming too big to fail. Anybody see the Pharmaceutical industry lately. Pfizer buying Wyeth, Merck buying Schering and Roche buying Genentech, possibly more on the horizon. Unless it's stopped, and soon we're going to be getting all our medicines and research from Pfizer and the only stuff being produced and researched will be the stuff the Pfizer board deems worthy of investment. Here comes Viagra 2, 3 and 4 cause they make money and screw the new stuff for Alzheimer's because it's hard to work on.

[AndyA]

23. Regardless of how many people are employed by/because of AIG,

the company has been run poorly and is too big. It needs to be broken up, and new people brought in to run things properly. AIG has been run into the ground, and it cannot be allowed to continue.

When we're done with AIG, we can go after at&t, the media conglomerates, and anyone else who is too big to fail.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. The headline is a lie

they do not employ 1 out of 3 Americans. They simply don't. There are 300 million Americans.

This is the sort of rhetoric that must come to an end. Too stupid to fly.

[frazzled]

27. That's not what he said

I was folding laundry and so not totally tuned in, but I thought it was that 30% of Americans were in some way connected through their pensions, 401ks, or other retirement plans into funds that an AIG collapse would have impacted seriously. Or something like that. He did not say 30% worked for them.

[Thrill]

30. YES HE DID, He said 1 in 3 Americans are employed

AIG companies.

[Larkspur]

28. If true, then that is a reason to nationlize them

[LiberalFighter]

31. Where did you see him saying that? I couldn't find it.

[Thrill]

43. video

http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=1155201977&bctid=17380066001

[LittleBlue]

33. That can't be right. Either you've screwed this up, or Geithner has

because that makes absolutely no sense at all. It's far too high. They don't even indirectly employ ~70 million people.

The largest employer is the federal government, and IIRC they employ no more than 1 in 10 directly or indirectly.

[Thrill]

39. I'm sure there will be a transcript. And its been repeated on CNN

[LittleBlue]

40. If that's true, Geithner is simply wrong.

I don't know why he would repeat such an obvious error on national television.

[Thrill]

42. Here is the video

http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=1155201977&bctid=17380066001

[frazzled]

45. He said "Companies INSURED by AIG employ one in three Americans"

He did not say AIG employs 1 in 3 Americans.

AIG is a huge insurance company. Its financial activities are another thing.

[LiberalFighter]

46. I finally heard what he said and you have it correct. Big difference

between employing vs insuring.

[Christa]

38. And what about

the up to 15% unemployed? Do they take credit for them as well?