Wall St. Turns On AIG (AIG): Time's Up

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: September 12, 2008 11:49 am

Last Updated: April 28, 2020 9:26 am

Aig AIG (AIG) as taken its turn in the penalty box today, joining Washington Mutual (WM), Lehman (LEH), and Merrill Lynch (MER).

After after three quarters of significant write-offs, AIG is down 25% today for having done little or nothing to improve the firm’s direction since it was clear that the credit and housing crisis were bleeding it out.

AIG elected to give Wall St. veteran Robert Willumstad, who had been the insurace company’s chairman, the chief executive’s job. He had been on the board long enough to have at least partial blame for AIG’s trouble.

Willumstad said that "nothing is off the table" in terms of restructuring the firm.

On June 17, Willumstad stated “I’ve set a goal in the next 90 days to dig into the businesses – all of the businesses, not just the non-insurance businesses – to make sure our capital is being employed in the right areas."

AIG stock is in a flat spin. Time’s up.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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