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There is no way you can really think the American people (as a collective) are an 'innocent party' to any fraud, real or perceived, that AIG was involved with
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No, but the person who took the cute kitty money was, and I won't be involved in kitty fraud
But, the idea that you can "insure" derivatives (as in this case - bundled mortgages with various levels of "spread risk") thereby allowing banks and lending institutions to use lower capital reserves so that they can then go out and make more risky loans is, in my opinion, a little too cute (making money out of nothing - emperor's new clothes-ish), and that's where the risk management geniuses should have stepped in and said, "wait a minute, what if this housing bubble doesn't last? - I mean when in history have we been able to sustain housing market growth at these absurd levels?"
But, they didn't and they got deeper and deeper into unsustainable risk levels and the rest is history (at least their part in it). There is plenty of blame to be laid.
Oh and while you were typing I edited my earlier post - I don't blame all of AIG, just the people in the Financial Products Unit