Spitzer may have been on to something at AIG

What a stunning disclosure of arrogance. I remember having a healthy discussion with a former employee of that company who was defending him against Eliot Spitzers charges when he was the NY AG. The AIG spinmeister gave a great story about how former CEO Hank Greenberg built the company and deserved all of the luxuries that he wanted. Heaven forbid a CEO of a public company acted like it was a public company with shareholders. If someone wants a little kingdom, fine, buy all of the shares and go private so you don't have to deal with SEC rules. That also means the big money may not be there since you no longer have shareholders pumping up the value.

Reading this story is eye opening but hardly shocking. Spitzer made a mess of many things but when it came to Wall Street he was and is absolutely right. What the heck is this?

The former head of ailing U.S. insurance giant AIG told a court on Wednesday that he had a private jet fly a large block of the company's stock to Bermuda from New York to prevent AIG from seizing it.

"It was a reaction to the entire environment that was emerging between AIG and Starr International," Maurice "Hank" Greenberg told U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. "It was starting to get very ugly."

A key witness in the dispute between Starr International and American International Group, Greenberg appeared peevish under questioning by the lawyer for his former company, Ted Wells.

People like this are the kind Obama thinks can be pressured by the public to do the right thing. Meanwhile, Eliot Spitzer did another good interview today where he discussed the current "reform" by the White House and Congress, comparing it to rearranging the deck chairs. Think what you want to think about Spitzer but when he talks about Wall Street problems, he tends to be a lot more right than wrong.

Obama really needs someone tough to rise to the occasion but it increasingly looks like another photo up, hand slap and little action. The media appearances are working for Obama now but maybe he ought to get a bit more serious about addressing problems instead of time wasting change that is anything but change.