I wrote:
I expect there will be nothing left of it, but the liquidation is orderly, meaning the divisions and properties they sell OFF are not going at fire-sale prices.
I mean that unless the market panics and prices fall far below normal valuations, AIG's property should be enough to cover the loans. A lot of their property is worthless sub-prime paper, but they have enough income-generating valuable stuff to pay back the loans. We hope. That would not be the case if they had to sell it all off in a week. That's why loans were needed -- to stretch out the liquidation sale. Not to help the company, which is a dead duck.
Limbaugh made another gross error, referring to the government getting into the "health care" business. No one advocates that. We want the government to get into the health insurance business. Health insurance companies do not run hospitals any more than auto insurance companies run body shops. (HMOs do run their own hospitals, and some of them act as insurers.) In Japan and Europe, the government provides insurance, but most hospitals are privately run.
In the U.S., the government runs the VA hospitals only, as far as I know. I do not think anyone advocates more government-run hospitals. Obama does not.
- Jed
