Submitted by Robert Arvanitis, Sep 19, 2008 09:12

Spitzer did not believe in God, but he did God's work in getting Greenberg fired. Greenberg cheated his way to the top, abusing regulators and reinsurers, using accounting scams and "finite reinsurance" to artificially smooth earnings. Even if Greenberg had stayed, he would not have stopped AIG from betting on credit. Even a decade ago, he hired Petros Sabatakakis from Citi as chief credit officer. Petros quit in digust soon after - even with MRG's backing, he could not rein in AIG Financial Products and the others producing all that (dangerous) revenue. Just like the Peter Priniciple. AIG rose to the top in traditional insurance, and then did the lateral arabesque into credit. The crash was inevitable.

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