Carl Icahn Pushes A.I.G. to Split Up

[ErikJ]

Source: NYTimes

Seven years after the American International Group was bailed out by the federal government for being too big to fail, one of Wall Street’s most prominent activist investors says that the insurer is now too large to succeed.

The billionaire Carl C. Icahn wrote an open letter to A.I.G. on Wednesday, calling on the company to break itself up into several smaller insurers and to cut costs to keep itself competitive with other rivals.

A.I.G. has also faced questions about how it plans to deal with the tighter regulation. But Mr. Icahn, citing comments from other shareholders, called for more urgency.

“We believe there is no more need for procrastination, the time to act is now,” the activist wrote in his letter. “I cannot fathom how you could ignore repeated requests from shareholders to execute a plan that would release billions of dollars of capital, free the company from onerous excess regulation, and leave shareholders owning stock in three separate, market leading insurance franchises.”
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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/29/business/dealbook/carl-icahn-pushes-aig-to-split-up.html?_r=0

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. I cannot believe I agree with Icahn . . But I do.

AIG used to have a reserve/underwriting/rating history that was the envy of other insurers. Until they dabbled in the mortgage fraud.

AIG "insured" the gambles by Chase, etc., in their mortgage shenanigans, and they NEVER set aside even one dollar in reserve. (Of any potential loss) When the losses came, it was big enough to destroy the company several times over.

[groundloop]

8. However, Icahn has a far different motivation than you

Icahn is a shareholder and sees this as a path to enhance his riches.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. Could be, but in insurance, finance, banking, and investments

Once you reach a certain size, there is no more real competition. It is simply a matter of stacking the unshuffled deck to continue to rip off unsuspecting consumers, while having your losses compensated by the Feds.

Case in point, every municipality that trusted its finance "experts" and sent money and assets to Wall ended up losing vast amounts of money. The few that kept their own accounts and did their own investments saved billions.

Why else would Wall be aiming for social security? The last unplowed field, the last target for theft and asset transfer, the last huge target for greed.

[KamaAina]

3. tRump's Treasury Secretary?!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027054386

[Dont call me Shirley]

4. I have a better idea, Carl, it's called enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

[ErikJ]

5. Maybe he's trying to beat Bernie to the punch

More likely trying to get out of AIG's debt for the other spinoffs.

[Dont call me Shirley]

6. He'd probably rather punch Bernie than push to enforce the SA-TA. Bernie supports Enforcement.

[ErikJ]

7. I meant to deflate Bernie's populism for splitting 2 big 2 fails. Icahn backing Trump

because he will be his US Treasurer.