The poaching continues - Berkshire Hathaway hires two senior execs from AIG Asia

[ourkid8]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/berkshire-hathaway-hires-two-senior-054813036.html

 

This definitely shows the high caliber of management at AIG as Berkshire has poached numerous execs. 

 

Tks,

S

[Guest longinvestor]

AIG represents everything that is / was wrong about the world of finance over the recent times. BRK is simply the best man that is winning. Munger's thought about being better than the idiots is true here.When the Presidents of NA, LA, ASIA all flee, what does that tell you?

[Liberty]

AIG represents everything that is / was wrong about the world of finance over the recent times. BRK is simply the best man that is winning. Munger's thought about being better than the idiots is true here.When the Presidents of NA, LA, ASIA all flee, what does that tell you?

 

What do you think is wrong with AIG right now?

[nkp007]

Berkshire is the Facebook of insurance.

 

How can you say no?

[Guest longinvestor]

AIG represents everything that is / was wrong about the world of finance over the recent times. BRK is simply the best man that is winning. Munger's thought about being better than the idiots is true here.When the Presidents of NA, LA, ASIA all flee, what does that tell you?

 

What do you think is wrong with AIG right now?

 

If they were any other "normal" business, they should not be around now.

 

Here's a partial list of AIG follies: Their problem became my problem in 2008-09 (just because they are TBTF); Pay themselves bonuses with money borrowed from taxpayers with a gun to our heads; They supposedly paid the taxpayers back in full (questioned by many); the CEO under whose watch they got into the mess has the chutzpah to sue the taxpayers; They want light touch regulation and the CEO now declares that they are no longer TBTF; They get to use the NOL's for a long time (is it their NOL anymore?), IOW, taxpayers will continue to bail them out and according to some folks this could continue until there is another crisis.

 

I have a simple question, why didn't AIG unwind the derivative contracts before 2009? Berkshire did, Buffett and Munger painstakingly went through and unwound each of those 30,000 or so contracts on Gen Re's books in 2001-2004 timeframe. Of course, AIG didn't know, yeah right!

 

AIG to me represents the worst form of "privatizing gains while socializing losses".

 

[deadspace]

AIG represents everything that is / was wrong about the world of finance over the recent times. BRK is simply the best man that is winning. Munger's thought about being better than the idiots is true here.When the Presidents of NA, LA, ASIA all flee, what does that tell you?

 

What do you think is wrong with AIG right now?

 

If they were any other "normal" business, they should not be around now.

 

Here's a partial list of AIG follies: Their problem became my problem in 2008-09 (just because they are TBTF); Pay themselves bonuses with money borrowed from taxpayers with a gun to our heads; They supposedly paid the taxpayers back in full (questioned by many); the CEO under whose watch they got into the mess has the chutzpah to sue the taxpayers; They want light touch regulation and the CEO now declares that they are no longer TBTF; They get to use the NOL's for a long time (is it their NOL anymore?), IOW, taxpayers will continue to bail them out and according to some folks this could continue until there is another crisis.

 

I have a simple question, why didn't AIG unwind the derivative contracts before 2009? Berkshire did, Buffett and Munger painstakingly went through and unwound each of those 30,000 or so contracts on Gen Re's books in 2001-2004 timeframe. Of course, AIG didn't know, yeah right!

 

AIG to me represents the worst form of "privatizing gains while socializing losses".

 

I'm not sure I totally agree that AIG is the worst example of privatizing gains and socializing losses

I would put that label in the originators of these toxic mortgages many of whom have been given a huge pass. That includes many of the large banks and investment banks. The next layer of evil is the grading agency.  Then comes the stupidity if AIG financial that actually believed that the originators and rating agencies may actually have been honest

 

If these truly were AAA securities then their risk was properly priced by AIG FP. The problem is that they clearly were not.  But why the banks and other originators were not more seriously punished also has to do with their central role in the economy.  We don't want to disrupt them.

Beyond this paying bonuses out of taxpayer funds has bad optics but there is not way they are going to survive without compensating executives appropriately.  Without doing so they just create a downward spiral and they die.  And by the way those executives were not part of AIG FP.  They were not part of the problem. 

Your rant explains why this stock sells below book.  But the future not the past will determine the stock price.