Fatal Risk: A Cautionary Tale of AIG's Corporate Suicide

Summary

No shortage of material has been written on the financial crisis. From the collapse of Bear Stearns to Lehman and more, the subject has been well covered.  However, one story the central story has largely remained uncovered:  that of AIG, the behemoth at the center of the storm.  Bear disappeared and the world survived, Lehman collapsed yet the markets saw another day, a multitude of banks have folded, but the world has kept spinning. What everyone from AIG executives to government and elected officials knew was that if AIG failed, if the government didnt step in, that the entire system would collapse.  But few understand why this was, how it could have happened, and what really went on inside AIG and in the offices of the NY Fed and US Treasury. Fatal Risk is the story of how AIG was built almost too perfectly by the infamous Hank Greenberg who understood risk like no other. But when Greenbergs disdain of regulators led to a run in with Eliot Spitzer and his ouster, it all started to come undone, except that it couldnt be unraveled. Fatal Risk is the story of AIG, what it is, how it was so brilliantly created, but how once the mastermind was no longer running the show, it choked on risk, and how it almost brought the entire system down with it. From the most colorful and mercurial Hank Greenberg, to the B-actors he surrounded himself with, investigative reporter Roddy Boyd takes readers inside the weird world that was and is AIG.