Joe Friday

What Obama Needs to Know about Tim Geithner, the AIG Fiasco and Citigroup

Those who entered into insurance contracts with AIG did so voluntarily, and thereby assumed the counterparty risk associated with AIG.

They knew that these contracts were not "insurance" at all. AIG was not selling this "protection" as an insurance contracts at all so as to avoid the legal requirements for capital etc.

At no time did any counterparty believe they had the full faith of the US treasury backing their risk. The US taxpayer should not take this loss. They did not choose to take on this risk.

If we let AIG go bankrupt and all those who contracted with them lose out, so be it. In the future all will be more careful with whom they take on "counterparty" risk. That is a lesson all need to learn.