Reply #31: Great idea. It'd make their names -- like Greenberg and China -- household words, PDQ. [View All]

[Octafish]

From 2001, before the meltdown, some background on AIG everyone should know:

China's Man in America

by William F. Jasper
October 8, 2001

Financial mogul Maurice Greenberg presides over a vast and expanding insurance empire. Meanwhile, he consorts with and lobbies for the barbaric Communist regime in Beijing.

Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg leads a charmed and busy life. As chairman and CEO of one of the world’s largest insurance and financial conglomerates, American International Group (AIG), Greenberg sits atop a very profitable and powerful empire. He dines with presidents and potentates and sups with the likes of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, global "wise man" Henry Kissinger, and chairman-of-the-world emeritus David Rockefeller. The New York-based magnate appears equally at home with the commissars of Communism, counting China’s premier, Zhu Rongji, and president, Jiang Zemin, as longtime friends.

Business has been very good for AIG. Greenberg’s "Letter To Shareholders" in AIG’s Annual Report 2000 noted:

AIG started the new Millennium on a positive note. Net income rose 11.5 percent to a record $5.64 billion, while earnings per share totaled $2.41, an increase of 12.1 percent over 1999.... et income gained 14.8 percent to $5.74 billion, or $2.45 per share. In addition, Revenues gained 13.1 percent to $45.97 billion; Assets rose 14.3 percent to $306.58 billion; Shareholders’ equity reached $39.62 billion at year-end, compared to $33.3 billion at year-end 1999; and Return on equity was 15.6 percent.

Behemoths the size of AIG have voracious appetites — and deep pockets. So, over the past few years, Greenberg has led the company on a worldwide acquisition binge. Some of the firms devoured by AIG include the Los Angeles-based financial services company SunAmerica, Inc. ($18 billion), the Hartford-based HSB Group ($1.2 billion), Egypt’s Pharaonic Insurance Company ($18 million), the financial units of Korea’s Hyundai Group ($860 million), the Canada-based Norwich Union Holdings, Ltd ($159 million), and the Chiyoda Mutual Life Insurance Company of Japan ($522 million). Most recently, Greenberg received accolades from Wall Street and the investment community for his August 29, 2001 acquisition of American General Corporation (for $23 billion).

Powerbroker

SNIP...

Greenberg is chairman of The Asia Society, the Starr Foundation, and the Nixon Center, as well as the founding chairman of the U.S.-Philippines Business Committee and past chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council. He is vice-chairman of both the U.S.-ASEAN Council on Business and Technology and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and has long been a major force in The Business Roundtable and the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange, a member of the Trilateral Commission, a director of the United Nations Association, and the past chairman, deputy chairman, and director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. President Clinton appointed him to the Advisory Committee of the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection.

COMMTINUED...

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/China's+Man+in+America.(insurance+executive+Maurice+Greenberg+lobbies...-a079087192

Then again, Corporate McPravda being what it is, they'd probably misidentify everyone wearing feathers and call them all liberals.