hang onto your butts folks...this AIG number is gonna hurt

[ProdigalJunkMail]

if you're not out yet...you might be by the end of the day. i was thinking a lot of this number (out today from AIG) was already built into the markets, but from the looks of the futures i am going to have to rethink that...

http://money.cnn.com/data/premarket/index.html

sP

[DrDan]

1. DOW Futures down 144 at 7:15 am

tired of this roller coaster

[MercutioATC]

2. Keep your hands inside the ride at all times

This is just the first hill...

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. the difference is that roller coasters have 'ups' n/t

[lonestarnot]

4. Their shit needs to be dismantled. Too bigga eat!

[Delphinus]

5. So, this time we're

NOT going to bail them out - right?

[burythehatchet]

6. lettign AIG fall would have a ripple effect among their counterparties.

I hate AIG, and I know them well. The taxpayers have a gun to their heads.

[GoesTo11]

12. Many of their counterparties should lose too

What do we care if Goldman Sachs loses $10B in paper profits from a bet they made that the toxic mortgages they were selling would go bad?

A lot of their counter-parties are like that, not just municipalities that wanted bonds guaranteed.

[tekisui]

8. They will get more money.

And, I doubt this will be the last time.

[Atman]

7. BushCo heavily invested in AIG

That's all you need to know. AIG holds lots of the paper which finances the war, as well as insurance on much of it. This is about protecting assets of Bush and his cronies.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Well its out now

Insurance giant AIG has reported a loss of $61.7bn (£43bn) in the final three months of 2008 - the largest quarterly loss in US corporate history.

And the firm will receive an extra $30bn from the US government as part of a revamped rescue package.

AIG has already received $150bn in financial support - the biggest bail-out by far of any US company.

Stock markets slid sharply as AIG's plight underscored fears about the health of the global financial system.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7918643.stm

[AndyA]

10. We need to break up these "too big to fail" corporations.

We need to split up AT&T. Again. We did it for a reason back in the 1980s, and now they've reassembled all the little companies into one big, giant monster. Again.

Break them up and tell them to not condense again.

There are lots of other companies that need to be split up too. We need diversity in ownership. Not everyone is stupid enough to do the things these big companies have done to get themselves in trouble.

[Strelnikov_]

11. Too big to fail, then too big to exist n/t