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March 02, 2009

More Funny Munny for AIG...
by Gary Tanashian

Government unveils revamped aid package to AIG

Some readers may know that I am the owner of a physical 'brick and mortar' business, as well as the web-based financial market enterprise, biiwii.com. Six years ago I was simply a business person trying to use all his instincts to navigate a company through what had been for many years rough going for American manufacturers. Hence our little niche within the medical equipment industry, which is more stable than say, the semiconductors. This has worked out well; we stay on the cutting edge of automation and productivity and, as a reward, we get to survive, despite our location in a country that seems intent on eating the rest of its productive seed corn.

Enter AIG, giant emblem of excess and downright immoral greed. One of our finest financial institutions, charged with insuring peoples' futures. In 2004, not coincidentally the year I was activated to start biiwii.com, I was in the midst of a furious effort to pay off my company's capital equipment debt due to the unsustainable and growing toxins built into the financial system, including those at AIG. My company had a large (and non-vital) insurance policy with AIG that was tying up significant principle dollars that I could have used to take a big chunk out of the company's debt.

I made the decision to pull out the overwhelming majority of this principle to service debt, while leaving enough intact to give the policy several years of life - a sort of FrankenPolicy - in case it turned out that I was not what I thought I was, brutally honest about the financial system, and was instead a card carrying member of the lunatic fringe.

Okay, we all must stand by our decisions and this was a good one, regardless of whether or not all the funny government munny actually acts to save this awful and pathetic mega corporation. But I had to fight the financial adviser who put us into this thing, tooth and nail to get my company's principle out of AIG's clutches. After all, he was on the side of convention and normalcy in 2004. I was crazy. That was the old world and that was the way it used to be. Not any more.

I eventually paid off every penny of the company's debt (before taking on some new debt aimed at productivity and on very favorable terms). But the story here is about all the people, all the companies that are either a) going to be blown up when AIG ultimately fails or b) going to get a free ride when this mess is eventually swept under the rug through the creation of infinite government dollars (and associated debt) and the illusion that economies can be micro managed successfully by bureaucrats, lurches forward.

Even if 'they' are able to keep the illusion intact for a while, I would prefer to have done things the honest way and not have any markers in with today's financial immorality, which will one day come to be seen as the final nail in the coffin of future generations' ability to enjoy the relative prosperity that we, and those who came before us, were able to enjoy. The USA is being brought back into the pack. It feels like the world is ending, but in reality it is just changing. A US centric viewpoint will no longer apply.

You cannot fight fire with fire, credit bubbles are not cured by going further into debt and more inflationary policy cannot do anything but amplify the terrible effects of inflationary policy come before. The Obama administration is carrying forward the illusion that was kicked off by the Bush administration. This will end badly, but then again that is what I was saying back in 2004.

Gary Tanashian
http://www.biiwii.com/

Disclaimer: biiwii.com does not recommend that any trading or investment positions be taken based on views expressed on this site. If you speculate or invest it is suggested that you consult a financial advisor qualified in your area of interest.

Copyright © 2005-2009 Gary Tanashian

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