Скачать или смотреть AIG: The $182 Billion Bailout That Saved (and Enslaved) America

September 16th, 2008. 9:00 PM. Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
One day after Lehman Brothers collapsed and sent global markets into freefall, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke faced an impossible choice.
American International Group—the largest insurance company in the world, with $1 trillion in assets, operating in 130 countries, insuring 180,000 entities including 85% of Fortune 500 companies—had 48 hours before it ran out of cash.
If AIG failed, every major bank on Earth would collapse. Pension funds would evaporate. Money market accounts would break. The entire global financial system would freeze completely.
But just 24 hours earlier, Paulson had refused to save Lehman Brothers. He'd drawn a line. No more bailouts. No more rewarding Wall Street's recklessness with taxpayer money. Let them fail.