$10 to $15 billion in shares of AIG are going to be sold by the Treasury in H1 2011, according to Reuters.

[credit provider=”AP”] MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely without pay from the cable network, for donating to democrats.Hedge fund titan Paul Tudor Jones is selling his 6,000 acre estate on the Chesapeake Bay for $30 million.

[credit provider=”The Standard” url=”http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=104323&sid=30077018&con_type=3″] UPDATE: This article originally named the wrong Chinese tycoon. These are the girlfriends of Joseph Lau Luen-hung. AIG’s Asian subsidiary, AIA, begins trading tomorrow after a US$17.8 billion initial public offering.

Earlier this month, everyone was talking about the wild success of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), with recent reports from the Treasury estimating that it could cost taxpayers in total as little as $50 billion, or less.In an early October report, the Treasury approximated that taxpayers would lose just […]

AIG just announced that its CEO Robert Benmosche — who has lead a turnaround that currently is surpassing expectations — has cancer. He’s not leaving the company. We wish him a speedy recovery.

AIG’s attempt to IPO its Asian ‘AIA’ business, as a means to raise capital for the still-struggling insurer, has already attracted massive demand.

Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, a German state-owned bank, is suing Goldman Sachs over a $37 million loss on its investment in its share (a tranche) of a CDO called Davis Square VI. TCW, the manager for all of Goldman Sach’s Davis Square deals, is also being sued:

The government and AIG have agreed to the first step in the government’s attempt to extricate itself from (one of) the biggest and most appalling bailout(s) of the financial crisis.The government will convert its $49 billion of preferred stock into common stock, leaving it with a 92% ownership in the […]

[credit provider=”The U.S. Army via Flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/3311681802/”] Barclays Capital is beginning to cut some 400 back-office employees today, a source confirms with DealBook. The “routine” lay-offs are in BarCap’s operations and IT support staff.UBS‘ UK unit was sued for copying articles by an energy news publisher, and reprinting them word-for-word […]

Oil damages of $33 billion contributed to a staggering $17 billion loss for BP this past quarter.

AIG lives in one of the oldest buildings in New York, a building they very much hope to keep around for many more years to come for many reasons, but mainly because AIG is an insurer.

CNBC is reporting that AIG is set to pay the state of Ohio $725 million.

Here’s what everyone was thinking before we found out that the SEC will in fact announce a Goldman settlement at 4:45 today:

Because the Goldman excuse is getting old, Roddy Boyd aka the Financial Investigator is writing a book on why AIG really failed.What’s exciting is that there’s a new fall-guy singled out in this story: Win Neuger.

(This testimony today is being delivered today to the FCIC)

(This testimony today is being delivered today to the FCIC)   Chairman Angelides, Vice Chairman Thomas and Members of the Commission:   Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Commission’s work to understand the causes of the financial crisis.  I would like to begin my testimony with an […]

Just a heads up.

[credit provider=”Michael Magro Foundation”] The SEC sued ICP Captial Management and its founder, Thomas Priore, for alleged mismanagement of an $11 billion CDO deal, according to the Wall Street Journal.The SEC lawsuit alleges Priore forced holders of the CDO Triaxx to buy bonds that helped ICP support itself in 2007 […]

The Congressional Oversight Panel tasked with investigating the bailouts has released a long, scathing report on the bailout of AIG, which we’re still reading over.

No criminal charges will be filed against Joseph Cassano or anyone else at AIG, lawyers have announced.

Neil Barofsky, The Special Inspector General for TARP oversight, better known as SIGTARP, says criminal or civil charges are still on the table in the AIG coverup, according to a long profile at Bloomberg Markets Magazine. In the eye-opening piece, Barofsky talks about how he got a crappy basement office […]

Now that Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta is under investigation for passing inside information to Galleon’s Raj Rajaratnam, we might as well get to the bottom of what happened with Goldman board member Stephen Friedman during his tenure on the board of the New York Fed.

According to a tweet sent out by Zerohedge, insurer American International Group could have a legal claim against Goldman Sachs, hence the pop in the stock earlier and heavy volume around 11:00 AM. Right now, AIG is up 1% but could go higher as the day progresses and more news […]

The best April Fool’s joke we’ve heard today comes from the upper management at AIG.

The banks working on the deals to sell some of AIG’s assets are profitting well off of AIG’s distressed situation.Because of the Prudential deal advisors (Blackstone, Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Citi), AIG was able to command ~over $30 billion for AIA, a much higher price than Prudential’s initial bid of […]

Let’s take a look at what’s moving on the S&P 500:

NEW YORK (AP) — Former American International Group Inc. CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg is selling the shares he still owns of the insurer to UBS Securities LLC for $278 million.

has new news on what the pay czar is up to – deciding whether or not banks that took bailout funds should be required to force employees to return some of their bonuses.

We called representative Alan Grayson (D-Fla) one of the winners of the recession thanks to several popular populists gestures, including a sizzling Youtube video.

Pretty much any company that was a recipient of TARP money or filed for bankruptcy is kicking arse and taking names today. Shares of American International Group (AIG) are up 2.5% to $34.45 a share. Fannie and Freddie are both enjoying rock solid gains. Freddie Mac (FRE) is up 6.75% […]

Today is AIG bonus day, when the financial services company plans to pay out $46 million to its employees.

Will Prudential PLC actually manage to complete its proposed acquisition of AIG Asian arm?

Weak volume all day – until this afternoon when things exploded like a gas can in a fire.

The amazing thing about this market is the lack of middle ground.

No doubt the government continues to smile as its investments in AIG (AIG), Fannie (FNM), and Freddie (FRE) become more valuable. After posting double-digit gains yesterday, AIG (AIG) is back on a roll today, currently up 5.4% at $34.55 a share. Fannie Mae (FNM) is also climbing but those gains […]

Right around 1:00 PM EST, volume on AIG soared and the stock has shot up 12% to $32.94 a share. So far there’s no breaking news or particular cause for the sudden spike but we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

While the indices sway back and forth, there’s still some companies posting solid gains (and solid losses) out there. Let’s take a look:

NEW YORK (AP) — American International Group will sell a second overseas life and health insurance unit for $15.5 billion to MetLife Inc. in an ongoing bid to repay billions in government aid. It was the second major deal AIG completed this month to raise cash. On March 1, AIG […]

The former general counsel of AIG, Anastasia Kelly, left the struggling insurance giant when it became clear TARP-related pay requirements would result in a huge pay cut.

[credit provider=”commons.wikimedia.org” url=”http://commons.wikimedia.org”] [preserve] [/preserve] [preserve] [/preserve] The collapse of American International Group (AIG) was largely the result of a little understood investment strategy that allowed the insurance giant to make optimistic bets on the housing market and other asset classes without having to actually buy the bonds backed by […]

Fresh off of another round on eye-popping losses and hints that it may need more taxpayer funds, AIG is preparing to boost the salaries of some of its highest paid executives.

AIG just blew another deadline to sell the asset management unit known as PineBridge. The deal to sell Pinebridge for $500M to Pacific Century Group was originally scheduled to close at the end of 2009. In mid-December, PineBridge announced that the closing would be delayed until the end of January […]

NEW YORK (AP) — The board of American International Group Inc. has approved the sale of its Asian life insurance arm to British life insurer Prudential PLC, according to media reports Sunday.

(AP) Prudential PLC, Britain’s largest life insurer, is exploring a bid for the Asian life-insurance arm of American International Group Inc., according to media reports Saturday. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter it did not name, reported a deal could come in a week. Prudential would […]

[credit provider=”AP”] Has AIG blown through another deadline for the sale of its asset management unit?Earlier this month we reported that the sale of the unit, which was renamed Pinebridge last month as AIG prepared to sell it off, was rumoured to be in trouble.

That’s pretty much all you need to know about AIG. The black hole is getting deeper. The stock is off 5%.

[credit provider=”AP”] Two women filed a lawsuit against AIG’s derivatives unit for promoting a “boy’s club” environment and not including them.According to Bloomberg, Susan Potter and Deonna Taylor claim AIG managers misled them about salary caps, paid younger and male employees more for similar work and then fired them in […]

(This guest post originally appeared at the author’s blog)

AIG is the newest name to be linked with Greece as the bailed out insurer has emerged as a source of CDS on the troubled state.

The sale of AIG’s fund-management arm to Pacific Century Group may be in danger of falling apart, according to a person inside the company.

Why is AIG being permitted to continue to give the finger to the government, and ultimately, the US public that saved its bacon?

Poker players have a saying that goes like this.

Peter Hancock, widely credited with being the architect of the derivatives business, has just been tapped by AIG to oversee finance and risk.

In order to implode and cost taxpayers $180 billion, AIG first had to make — and lose — positively massive market bets with other Wall Street firms. 

 

(This guest post originally appeared on Newdeal20.org.)

Update: Bloomberg is reporting that if the AIG-Metlife deal doesn’t go through, S&P may cut Metlife’s ratings. Ouch.

Here’s another classic Dylan Ratigan tirade, this time directed squarely at President Obama. In it, he blasts him for perpetuating the “lie” that the banks have repaid the bailout, when in fact, says Ratigan, the bailout actually soared into the trillions, due to the Fed’s backstop.

Cut the outrage.

Tim Geithner is back on top in the Obama administration, and his deputies are making it clear that the “Volcker Rule” won’t seriously overturn the way business is done on Wall Street.

We still think President Obama quietly fired Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner two weeks ago, when he rushed to the microphone with Paul Volcker the day after the disastrous loss in Massachusetts and announced a new war on Wall Street.

As expected, both Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner denied responsibility for the worst aspects of the AIG bailout–overpaying counterparties and the secrecy.

Hank Paulson’s memoir is out.  In it, he explains what got him through the financial crisis:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was cross-examined yesterday by the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. The lawmakers could not understand why AIG (AIG) got $182 billion in taxpayer bailout cash.

Goldman Sachs may once again find itself under fire thanks to information contained in the five page document detailing all of the 178 collateralized debt obligations that AIG wrote credit protection for.

Confused about the ongoing AIG controversy?

Geithner and Co. have taken a lot of heat for withholding information regarding AIG, its derivatives counterparties and how much the associated payouts were in regard to collateral calls. No more. Below is the infamous “Schedule A” document in all its un-redacted glory.  Needless to say, the numbers will blow […]

With the AIG, Goldman, counterparties hearing currently going down, investors are worried that revelations will have a negative impact on the firm.

From The Daily Beast:

Use this post as an open thread to discuss Tim Geithner’s appearance on Capitol Hill, which starts at 10:00.

Some good thoughts from Miller Tabak’s Peter Boockvar on the significance of today:

So let us get this straight.

We are currently going through the recently released Special Report by Darrell Issa: “Public Disclosure As A Last Resort: How the Federal Reserve Fought to Cover Up the Details of the AIG Counterparties Bailout From the American People,” and a cursory perusal indicates that this could be proverbial end for […]

Tomorrow is the big day: Tim Geithner and New York Fed general counsel Thomas Baxter are testifying to a house committee about the AIG bailout.

AIG needs no introduction in terms of public outcry regarding its corporate spending.

Tomorrow, Tim Geithner will appear before the House Oversight Committee to answer for the actions of the New York Fed when it bailed out AIG in 2008.

TARP Watchdog Neil Barofsky is opening up two new investigations relating to AIG, according to POLITICO.

The New York Times unearths more documents showing the lengths to which Tim Geithner’s New York Fed went to try to keep the AIG bailout and counterparty details secret.

(This post originally appeared at TechTicker)

Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee (which is the committee that has the lead on all this AIG stuff) sent an angry letter to his counterpart Congressman Edolphus Towns, complaining about intransigence and footdragging at the New York Fed.

(This post originally appeared at NewDeal2.0)

It looks like Bernanke has eased up on his stance regarding AIG and the Fed’s bailout of the battered insurance giant.

New York Democrat and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Edolphus Towns, has his sights set on Hank Paulson. Towns has invited former Treasury Secretary Paulson to testify on his role in orchestrating the controversial bailout of AIG. Whether or not Paulson will take him up on […]

Here’s the transcript of Tim Geithner’s interview on CNBC with John Harwood. In it he discusses banker greed, the AIG memos (he maintains he had nothing to do with them), and whether the new bank tax is punitive. We’ve highlighted the key parts

Reuters columnist James Pethokoukis agrees with our argument that we’re stuck with Tim Geithner until November.

(This guest post originally appeared at the author’s blog)

Philip Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, doesn’t get it. It was clear at today’s hearing that Lloyd Blankfein failed to satisfy the panel investigating the financial crisis when it came to questions about Goldman Sachs selling mortgage securities that helped trigger the global credit crisis. “Mr. Blankfein […]

Want to see what crappy toxic junk AIG bought from its counterparties?

(This guest post was written by Eliot Spitzer, William Black, and Frank Partnoy and originally appeared at NewDeal2.0)

Earlier we mentioned a Reuters report on AIG, and how the SEC had granted the bailed-out company the right to keep certain financial data out of the public eye until the year 2018.

Good news. It looks as though we’ll be getting access to secret data on the bailout of AIG and its counterparties.

As we sit here today, Wall Street continues to exploit a policy of government-sponsored giveaways and secrecy to pay themselves billions.

AIG has asked Thomas A. Russo, the former legal affairs chief at Lehman Brothers, to be its next general counsel, according to a report from WSJ reporters Serena Ng and Joann Lublin  that cites those “people familiar with the matter.”

The UK’s richest soccer club Manchester United are facing a debt crisis brought on by the leveraged buyout of the club by the American Malcolm Glazer. The club is to issue 500 million pounds ($808 million) in bonds to restructure its debts in an effort to fight off their incresingly […]

Tim Geithner better start training.

 

The latest revelations about the New York Fed’s actions in the AIG bailout make one thing clear: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner must go. 

(This guest post was written by Eliot Spitzer, William Black, and Frank Partnoy, and it originally appeared at NewDeal2.0)