Business As Usual

by digby

Here’s some chutzpah for you. Eric Umansky and Sharona Coutts report that AIG — your AIG — is still lobbying:

Earlier today, we wondered whether AIG is still lobbying the federal government. After all, taxpayers have lent the failing insurance giant roughly $120 billion and now own 80 percent of the company. We spent days ringing AIG, the Fed and Department of Treasury, none of them could give us an answer. Well, we finally have one. An AIG spokesman, Joseph Norton, told us via e-mail a few minutes ago: “We are not a GSE [government-sponsored entity] and are therefore not restricted. We remain a share-holder owned entity and continue advocacy activities.” In other words, AIG is going to keep lobbying. By contrast Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac immediately shut down their lobbying after the government took them over.

Can you believe it? The government is paying lobbyists to lobby itself.

We shouldn’t be surprised. They treated themselves to spa treatments on the government dime after the bailout, so they haven’t exactly reconciled themselves to their new reality. They think they are still a high flying insurance company making huge bucks for the Big Money Boyz. They haven’t reckoned with the fact that they are now civil servants.

I know there is a certain sense of surreality about all this and that people haven’t really had a chance to catch their breaths and all. But the financial sector had better get a grip right now and recognize that the country has almost no patience with them at the moment and they will be rolling out the metaphorical guillotine if they don’t get some humility right now. I know it’s hard for former masters of the universe to accept that they have lost their magical powers, but well… they have.