Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (134466)	6/5/2012 11:53:26 AM
From: lorne	1 Recommendation Respond to of 224706

AIG Chief Sees Retirement Age as High as 80 After Crisis By Boris Cerni and Zachary Tracer - Jun 4, 2012 bloomberg.com American International Group Inc. (AIG) Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche said Europe’s debt crisis shows governments worldwide must accept that people will have to work more years as life expectancies increase. “Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old,” Benmosche, who turned 68 last week, said during a weekend interview at his seaside villa in Dubrovnik, Croatia. “That would make pensions, medical services more affordable. They will keep people working longer and will take that burden off of the youth.” The crisis, now in its third year, threatens to destroy Europe’s 17-nation currency union as Greece contemplates exiting the euro and Spain sees its bond yields rise and banking industry falter. German Chancellor Angela Merkel hardened her opposition to joint debt sharing in the euro region as U.S. President Barack Obama singled out Europe’s leaders for not doing enough to arrest the crisis. Greece abandoning the euro could be a disaster for the country and Europe must work to keep that from happening, said Benmosche, whose company was the world’s biggest insurer before it took a U.S. bailout. “People in Greece have to see there is no easy way out of this” and the government must get them to work longer, he said in the June 2 interview on the Adriatic coast. “If not, and if they go to their own currency, I think they will see huge inflation and it will be devastating for people on fixed incomes.” Life Expectancy Greece, where the average life expectancy is 81.3 years, has an effective retirement age of 59.6, among the lowest in Europe, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. French President Francois Hollande, the Socialist who was sworn in last month, has pledged to cut the retirement age to 60 from 62 while increasing corporate and bank taxes and introducing a 75 percent levy on earnings of more than 1 million euros ($1.2 million). Peter Hancock, CEO of AIG’s Chartis property-casualty unit, said last week the insurer has assigned staff from Argentina to advise their counterparts in Athens as the company prepares for a possible Greek exit from the euro, with the common currency at its lowest against the U.S. dollar since June 2010. Argentina defaulted on a record $95 billion of debt in 2001 and later abandoned a decade-long 1-to-1 peso peg to the greenback. “We have gone through the crisis in Argentina and other countries over time, so we have experience,” Benmosche said. The short-term nature of some of the company’s insurance contracts would minimize disruption if Greece stopped using the euro, he said. Local Currency “Our premiums would convert to the local currency, but if they do, so will our obligations,” he said. “We will deal with the rules at the time.” Benmosche has sold non-U.S. life insurers, a consumer lender and other businesses to pay back its taxpayer rescue, which swelled to $182.3 billion as the U.S. extended more credit and lowered the interest charged. The Treasury Department has cut its stake to 61 percent from 92 percent through three share sales totaling about $17.6 billion. In the most recent two, AIG bought back a total of $5 billion in stock. AIG still seeks to divest its plane-leasing unit and sell its remaining stake in Hong Kong-based insurer AIA Group Ltd. ‘The Overhang’ “The overhang from the government’s ownership interest in AIG is in the process of going away,” Paul Newsome, an analyst at Sandler O’Neill & Partners LP, wrote in a May 30 research note. “AIG should have sufficient enough capital to facilitate the Treasury Department’s exit.” Treasury raised $5.8 billion in the first offering in 2011, selling for $29 a share. At the same time, AIG sold 100 million shares for $2.9 billion to demonstrate access to the capital markets and satisfy a condition of its bailout. The insurer bought half of the $6 billion in stock the department divested at $29 apiece in March and $2 billion of a $5.75 billion offering that went for $30.50 a share in May. The government needs to average $28.72 to break even on its investment. AIG slid 6.8 percent on June 1 to close the week at $27.21 after U.S. employers created the fewest jobs in a year and the nation’s jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent. Reports also showed manufacturing grew less than estimated in the U.S. and China, and contracted for a 10th month in the euro region. Benmosche said people and businesses in the U.S. lack confidence and are hesitant to invest as financial regulation and tax policies remain unsettled. “I am optimistic that we’ll continue to grow, and if we get past this period of uncertainty and gain confidence again in the U.S. economic system, that will help lead the world out of the situation we are in today,” he said. To contact the reporters on this story: Boris Cerni in Ljubljana at bcerni@bloomberg.net; Zachary Tracer in New York at Ztracer1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (134466)	6/5/2012 1:50:48 PM
From: MJ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224706

Ann I would have to do some research exactly when the law passed. There was a banking law that was passed under Clinton or maybe GW Bush Sr. that affected how banks and stock brokerage firms did business. The new legislation suddenly allowed banks to become more than banks--------they were allowed to enter financial markets that had been separate. That 's when local banks began to change and disappear and the big banks began to act like supermarkets. Likewise, smaller brokerage firms that specialized in the buying and selling of stocks and bonds were taken over by larger firms. I remember sitting and reading the Wall St. Journal which was hand delivered and reading about the new regulations. I felt strongly at that time the new laws, regulations, changes were wrong and would create future problems. Was I ever right! Financing a home went from fixed rate loans for a given period of time to loans that were no longer fixed rate----this became the new sales gimmick. Gradually, as we have witnessed we had an industry to grow around buying and selling property with tenacles that most home owners and potential homeowners could not understand or fathom. In other words the KISS principle was no longer applicable----"Keep It Simple Stupid". This has resulted in a massive distribution and re-distribution of assets---------this is right in line with what the left of the Democrat Party and Obama wanted when he was in Chicago. I would love to see an ad for the election with Obama the king of Freddie, Sallie and Fannie sitting on top of the disaster he and his Dem cronies of years created. mj .