The State of NY loans $20 Billion?

The financial crisis of 2008…is loading up bigtime.  American International Group is that company that has those cute commercials on TV about the little kid who is knowledgeable and wonders about the families financial future and the folks say: “We have AIG!”  The kid then says: “Oh, its OK I can tuck myself in…!”

Well, AIG along with lesser powerful Lehman Bros., are in the “Dark Times”! Lehman Bros. simply folded their tent today….they all cleared out their desks and simply walked away.  They now enter history as another Enron!  Yet, this crisis may be seriously deeper than just the loss of one or two or twenty greedy companies.  You see they have 401K accounts, Pensions, Public Employee money, Government Loans and Stocks that once liquidated could fall like leaves from the trees!

We built an expansion bridge to the moon and now the State of New York is going to lend AIG $20 Billion of their $40 Billion dollars in reserves to try to bail out unsustainable growth.  All these companies have been built on the idea that 22 to 32 percent growth was a natural phenomena and when those numbers were not achieved….they would dump the CEO with a “Platinum Parachute”!  That under achiever would then find his or her way into another company doing the same thing.  Hey, they had one heck of a ride and had some wonderful wine and cheese Art Auctions!

Wachovia and Bank of America are not sitting on a spiked fence…..waiting for the post to either break or have a double truck and trailer run them over. Those days of blaming the Investment vehicles may be over.  We are getting down to the actual players in the game.  Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Bros. and AIG were all just front men….insulating the real players from the nasty fray.  So, now AIG is looking for a “Bridge Loan” of $40 Billion bucks……to sustain this antiquated system.  Don’t forget that all these people were very much engaged in the Hedge and Derivative Markets…..in fact that is where they have been stashing their extra cash.  Once those markets dried up…..the “Milk Money” was gone!  The Governor of New York, David Patterson should be very careful.  If he loans AIG the $20 Billion and then AIG goes the way of Lehman Bros. this could rightly effect lots of municipal money around the country.  Dominos…..you know!

For those poor people that put their entire financial future in the hands of “some financial advisor”…..things could be very different by the first of the year. 2009 could find the United States and the world financial markets in far different place by springtime!  We don’t see anymore money available to buy Real Estate or Capital Improvments.  So, if your 401K is something you have been planning on relying on in retirement………you might want to take a peek at your current positions in the market and you will need to determine a decent place to stuff that pillow with all the cash in it.

So, who should we bail out?  The big problem is….that if we bail out the wrong ones….we could cause a world depression!  The wings of the fly are currently being pulled off…one at a time……we are now in the buzzing mode so we need to be cautious and be sure that that birds don’t come by to gobble us up!