AIG’s Benmosche Can’t Push Uncle Sam Around, So Threatens to Quit

AIG’s Benmosche Can’t Push Uncle Sam Around, So Threatens to Quit

AIG’s CEO Robert Benmosche has displayed extraordinarily arrogance even before he took the job, so his latest stunt, a threat to leave AIG high and dry by quitting a mere three months in, should come as no surprise. Frankly, from the get-go, Benmosche fit the stereotype of a narcissistic top executive, with the extra seasoning of financial service industry “divine right to lofty pay” syndrome. It somehow never occurs to these people that a business on government life support is by definition no longer private enterprise, and other rules, legitimately, apply.

Let’s review Benmosche’s impressive record of overweening contempt for the government, and therefore taxpayers that rescued AIG. To stress the obvious, AIG is nationalized from an economic standpoint. Like Freddie and Fannie, the only reason the government has not taken 100% ownership (aside from the fact that it might generate bad PR) is that the debt would need to be consolidated on the Federal balance sheet.

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