Forgot your password?  
Related Topics

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and Themselves Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapters 8-9 Summary

This Study Guide consists of approximately 37 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Too Big to Fail (book).
This section contains 399 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Purchase our Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and Themselves Study Guide

Chapters 8-9 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 8 looks at American International Group, or AIG as it is commonly called. AIG started out as an insurance firm and grew into prominence in the financial products industry under the leadership of Hank Greenberg. In the early 2000s, AIG's financial products section had run afoul of federal regulators and was forced to pay heavy fines for misleading federal investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The financial products arm of AIG, called FP, was started in 1987 and traded heavily in derivatives, which are financial instruments based on underlying assets like residential mortgages. The department made a great deal of money, boosting AIG's earnings and convincing them they were practically indestructible. By May of 2008, however, the derivative market had sunk and the firm posted a first quarter loss of $7.8 billion.

AIG's board fired Martin Sullivan, the CEO and hired Bob Willumstad, one of the board...
(read more)

This section contains 399 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
Purchase our Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and Themselves Study Guide
Copyrights
Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and Themselves from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.
Follow Us on Facebook