Not much is heard these days about the bailout of American International Group. We're more likely to see stories about bailout recipients with continuing problems, such as GM, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. But AIG was perhaps the most spectacular — and outrageous — exemplar of the panic of 2008 and excesses of Wall Street.
The reason AIG hasn't been much in the news is because the news of AIG has been remarkably good. The company, which at one point was propped up by a $182 billion Treasury commitment, is making money. And now it's clear that Uncle Sam will make money on his "investment."
The Treasury Department says it soon plans to unload what's left of its AIG holdings. This won't be the government's first sale of its AIG stake, but all told, it expects to show a net return of more than $15 billion.
AIG was only one of many companies to which cash was shoveled four years ago, when it looked as if the entire global financial system was at risk. But it was AIG that seemed to generate the greatest public resentment.
Small wonder. . . .
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that while he concluded the AIG bailout was necessary because of the threat to the overall economic system, it still made him livid. Thanks to AIG's reckless underwriting of credit-default swaps, regulators feared that a collapse would trigger a contagion that could bring down its network of counterparties and cripple the global economy for years. . . .
We'll never know the answer to that one; we'll never get a definitive accounting of the bailout's costs and benefits, because we can't know what would have happened in the absence of a bailout. Still, this is one chapter of the story that is ending unexpectedly well.
Kansas City (Mo.) Star
Season to breathe
With 24/7 this and 24/7 that, instant messages and rapid engagement, voicemail and text and Twitter feeds and nothing ever unplugged, it’s as if the heartbeat of America is always racing now, stimulated by more currents and crosscurrents of electric impulses than anyone who came before us could have imagined.
That’s not a lament, just an observation that comes into sharper focus during those times when, traditionally, the world might have slowed down a bit, when we might have caught our breath and counted our blessings.
There are so many blessings to count, so many so easily taken for granted, such as amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesty, the Bill of Rights and the peaceful transfer of power, a constitution that both provides for majority rule and guards the rights of the minority. There are our traditions of faith and family, of liberty and new beginnings, the institutions of civil society, the ideas and principles on which free people might sustain themselves and a nation. There are the myriad ways by which individuals and communities bind wounds and comfort the afflicted and create hope for a better day.
May the blessings of the season be upon you, and may time for a deep breath or two be among them.
St. Paul Pioneer Press
