Silly Little Country

Michael Lewis on AIG

The author of "Liar's Poker" is also concerned about the mass hysteria.

Apart from Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times, it occurs to no one to say that a) the vast majority of the employees at AIG had as little as you or I to do with its quasi- criminal risk taking and catastrophic losses; b) that the most- valuable of those employees can easily find work at AIG’s competitors; and c) that if the government insists on punishing those valuable employees they will understandably leave, and leave behind a company even less viable than it is, and less likely to give the taxpayer back his money.

And also -- oh, yes -- that if the government can arbitrarily break contracts made by firms in which it has taken a stake no one in his right mind will ever again make a contract with one of those firms. And so all of the banks in which the government has investment will be damaged.

This is a very good column, and also emphasizes the point in the xkcd cartoon about innumeracy.

Apologies for my obsession with these bonuses, but I cannot recall in my reasonably long lifetime any episode of mass hysteria so stupid, nor any political behavior so totally outrageous and stupid, to boot. I dearly hope Obama can learn to lead, because the picture right now is not remotely pretty. Rome burns while Obama, having helped light the fire, disses the disabled on Leno.

The more I watch, the more I now sympathize with Geithner.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 11:01 AM