"Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene!"

Michael: My credit good enough to buy you out?

Moe Greene: Buy me out? [Fredo laughs nervously]

Michael: The hotel, the casino. The Corleone Family wants to buy you out.

Moe Greene: The Corleone Family wants to buy me out? No, I buy you out, you don't buy me out.

Michael: Your casino loses money, maybe we can do better...
[continues...]

Moe Greene: Sonofabitch! Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders!

--------------------------------------------

Old Moe tried to drive a tough bargain with the Corleones, and found out the hard way who was really in charge.

Reading Hank Greenberg's opinion piece in the WSJ today, one wonders if he has any relation to Moe.

Hank is upset that AIG didn't drive a harder bargain with the Feds in their bailout deal.

Huh ???

AIG was hours away from insolvency, where it had arrived by writing hundreds of billions in uncovered CDS bets (which began under Mr. Greenberg's tenure), and due to its size, threatened to drag down the entire financial system with it.

That was the point at which the Government came in to save the pathetically-run business, making AIG "an offer it couldn't refuse", extending a loan at a punative interest rate, and taking warrants for 79.9% of the company's equity.

Ideally, this would force AIG into an orderly liquidation (rather than a default, fire-sale, and financial system contagion) to repay the loan.

However, Hank Greenberg sees things differently. He applauds Citigroup for "insisting" on a better deal and suggests another do-over for AIG on even more favorable terms than last month's initial, lenient do-over.

In Hank's words, "The role of government should not be to force a company out of business, but rather to help it stay in business so that it can continue to be a taxpayer and an employer."

We've double-checked our copy of the US Constitution and cannot find the section that covers keeping mismanaged zombie insurance behemoths afloat with the hard-earned income of ordinary taxpayers.

"It's a National Treasure"

- Hank Greenberg re: AIG, September 16, 2008

The idea that the Government, rather than AIG's utter irresponsibility, forced AIG into its present situation is ludicrous. As is Mr. Greenberg's view of AIG - "a National Treasure", as he twice put it in a September 16 CNBC interview. During that interview, Greenberg also asserted that AIG "is not an insolvent company", and that it only needed a "bridge loan" from the Government to address a short-term liquidity problem.

Ten weeks, a further 50% decline from already-low September 16th $3.82 market price, and $150 Billion of taxpayer money later, it is safe to say that very much like Moe Green, Mr. Greenberg severely overestimated the strength of AIG's position. From the tone of his editorial today, he continues to do so.

No bailout for Moe Green.

.