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Behold AIG's Narcissism

June 30, 2010 – Comments (2)

From today's FCIC hearing with Joe Cassano, who ran AIG's derivatives unit prior to meltdown:

Commissioner Peter Walliston: Did you make any errors?

Cassano: When I think about the single error that may have been made by me I think how when I retired I didn't volunteer to be the chief clear, chief negotigator for the collateral calls. You need to use all avaiable rights by you. I believe I would have been able to negotiate substantial discounts on the collateral calls and enable the company to preserve that cash. Even in September, I could have gone to the counterparties and negotiated and prevent the taxpayer from spending $40 billion.  I would have negotiated a much better deal for the taxpayers than what the taxpayers got."

Granted, he's kind of right. Tim Geithner and Hank Paulson should have negotiated a better deal. But Cassano -- who is inarguably responsible for leading AIG off a cliff -- appears to think AIG's biggest flaw was life after Him. That's incredible.