Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Biting the hand... [UPDATED & BUMPED]

[Originally posted January 8, 2013]

Last we looked, insurance behemoth American International Group (AIG) had been the recipient of almost $200 billion in American taxpayer largesse. The good news is that they've (apparently) re-paid all of this, plus interest.


The not-so-good news is that, in a very strange twist of fate, they're contemplating suing the very taxpayers that bailed them out:

"[T]he insurance company is actually thinking about suing the U.S. government over the bailout that saved it ... The lawsuit does not argue that government help was not needed"

Wait, what?

"[The lawsuit] contends that the onerous nature of the rescue ... deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment."

Heh.

For the record, we noted the unconstitutional nature of the bailout in 2009; and Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe (an Obama campaign advisor) agreed. Interesting times, indeed.

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long:

"American International Group won’t join or take over a lawsuit  ... alleging that the government acted punitively against its shareholders when it acted to bail out AIG starting in September 2008."

Shall we all now breathe a sigh of relief?
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