Ex-AIG Chair Seeks Cushier Bailout Terms

With the Fed now injecting capital directly into Wall Street's spiraling banks, AIG's former chairman worries the company got shafted, the Wall Street Journal reports. The insurer will go under if the government doesn't change its bailout terms from a two-year, high-interest loan to 10-year nonvoting preferred stock, Hank Greenberg says, adding that more recent bailouts come with "terms far less onerous.”

AIG should also be allowed to sell "toxic" securities to the new $700 billion bailout fund and switch to mark-to-market accounting, AIG’s largest private investor adds. The government’s two-year loan was meant to keep AIG on a short leash, but the world’s insurance markets have collapsed further since—meaning AIG may have to liquidate more assets than expected to repay the loan.
(More AIG stories.)