Insurer Offers Bail Out to U.S. Government

American International Group (AIG) showed the world it wants to once again be taken as a systemic risk to the financial system by offering to help bail out the U.S. government.

Buoyed by its sale of its surplus lines (see related story), airplane leasing and Chinese life insurance units, its recent multi-billion settlement with Bank of America over mortgage fraud, and seven straight profitable quarters, the insurance giant was scheduled to meet with Obama Administration officials this week to present its plan to lend the government as much as $500 billion.

The AIG offer comes after China, the largest U.S. creditor, continued ratcheting up the pressure for the U.S. to get its financial house in order or risk having China cut off funds.

“The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,” said China’s official fair and balanced Xinhua news agency. “China, the largest creditor of the world’s sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China’s dollar assets.”

The U.S. is $14 trillion in debt, of which about $2 trillion is owed to China.

AIG, which was itself bailed out of its financial crisis by the federal government for $180 billion only three years ago, paid back U.S. taxpayers in full and ended government control of the company one year ago.

The company says it is now sitting on several trillion in reserves and in a strong position to loan the U.S. money.

A source inside AIG said the company wants to thank taxpayers for the aid they gave AIG when it needed it.

“Ben [AIG CEO Robert Benmosche] is looking forward to turning the Rose Garden into a vineyard,” said the source.

AIG has offered the government a $500 billion loan, on terms similar to those that the government gave AIG in its bailout, including a interest rate of 850 basis points over the three-month London Interbank Offered Rate (i.e., LIBOR plus 8.5 percent).

In exchange for the $500 billion credit facility, AIG would receive an 85 percent equity stake in the U.S. government.

AIG would also control Cabinet appointments and Congressional posts.

If the U.S. does not come up with a financing plan by year-end, it runs the risk of defaulting on more of its obligations and losing its “A” credit rating.

Analysts expect AIG will want to name its own treasurer to replace Timothy Geithner. Richard Fuld, the former chief of Lehman Brothers, is reportedly on the short list.

Terms of the deal include:

• AIG CEO Robert Benmosche will move into the White House and gain use of Air Force One for weekly trips to Croatia.
• President Barack Obama will lose his staff and teleprompter.
• The President and his family will relocate to the vice presidential residence. Vice President Joe Biden will be housed in a trailer on the grounds at Camp David.
• There can be no raises or bonuses for the President or Cabinet members and there will be clawbacks to 1911 of any raises given to federal workers.

President Obama called House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore to the White House to discuss the AIG offer.

Republicans criticized the deal for not going far enough to privatize the government.

Some analysts were critical of AIG for the move so soon after its own near-death experience. “You would think they would have learned their lesson about risky investments,” said Tilly Understow, Substandard & Poor.

AIG’s stock price, already at a new high, further shot up on news of the proposal.