AIG's Foolishness Puts Cataclysm Back on the Table

AIG's (AIG - commentary - Cramer's Take) making everyone's life difficult today. That's in part because AIG had been the biggest proponent of "super senior," meaning they repeatedly said that their collateralized debt obligation (CDO) exposure was of the kind that was intelligent, measured and thoughtful. They talked endlessly about how their due diligence made the difference and that unlike all of the other buyers, they kicked the tires three times and never bought the plain ol' CDOs. Then they brought in professors from Wharton to be sure that even if all heck broke loose and they were being too aggressive, they would be hedged.

They also were the first to give you the percentages of how much could go bad and that even in the worst-case scenario, they were overcapitalized. And, most important, they were insurers, no need to mark to market, they can play it all out.

Plus, they touted their own struggles. They made the point that because of the turmoil at the top, they hadn't bought any bad stuff and stopped buying residential real estate products after 2005. What they did buy -- they assured us in that big teach-in dog-and-pony show in December -- was the extra-special nature of their particular buys and that, unlike everyone else, risk officers scrutinized every single piece of paper that went into their super senior insurance, meaning only the top-top part of a CDO-squared, the part where everything had to default ahead of it; they made a point of how impossible that would be.

It was all nonsense. Every bit of it. It was all Enron, frankly, unless they genuinely drank their own Kool-Aid about risk management and extra-mile supervision. Obviously, the SEC needs to step in to find out, that's for certain.

This one's not from left field. I have been calling for Sullivan's firing for so long that I was mortified to speak at a St. Patty's Day event that was sponsored, in part, by AIG. This was the one that complained about me when I put it in the sellblock at $60 and said that Sullivan should be fired. The pushback from these guys was pretty heavy. As usual, they insisted that I did not know what I was doing. Heck, I hate that. For heaven's sake, if I didn't know what I was doing, why would I talk about it? There's enough that I don't know what I am doing that I am happy to shut up when I see it.

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