about the need to manage risk as a key element in returning these companies to profitability. With all due respect, since AIG is a government owned company surviving soley as a consequence of the infusion of our tax dollars, given the history of how AIG got in trouble in the first place, I do not want to see it being run by an unemployed derivatives trader with or without management experience. And if you are trying to sell the concept that CEO experience is different from other types of experience such that one would not logically first look at successful former CEOs to fill such a position, it is a very hard sell.

so successful that they've driven the economy into a ditch and meanwhile the people inside and outside said organizations are ostracized and never listened to. Talk about reinforcing success!

^{"All men's gains are the fruit of venturing."}

-Herodotus

is not a pool of successful former CEOs to draw from, I must disaggree as that is simply factually inaccurate. Remember that Feinberg's "pay czar" function is limited to seven companies that received government bailouts. Even after accounting for the bankruptcies like Lehman, there remain hundreds of profitable well run public companies with CEOs that can rightfully claim to be successful and would thus form a pool of potential CEO candidates from which another company could draw. If your point is that drawing on talent from within is sometimes superior, I have to agree that is often true, but that does not negate the existence of the pool of talent on the outside.

That actually makes sense. Hank Greenberg knew nothing about derivatives and Joe Cassano could talk him into doing whatever he wanted.

If the purpose is to shut down the trading portfolio in an orderly way at profit if possible, that's not a CEO position. Many of us who have worked on Wall Street have done this a number of times, including with the LTCM book. What you need are talented risk managers who know how to keep the book reasonably hedged every time a contract is abrogated or closed out. Again, there are thousands of people out there who can do that and would love to get $200,000 a year for that job. Then you need someone who can manage these people and understand exactly what they are doing and proposing to do so as to give them approval or not.

It sounds to me more and more that this guy Benmoshe isn't right for the job either, and certainly not at $7 million even if it is all in stock.

Focusing on AIGFP misses the point. The purpose is way more than to shut down the trading portfolio. Yes, that does need to be done but is is only part of the picture. AIG remains one of the largest insurance groups in the world and needs an experienced CEO to manage those operations. Benmosche, as the highly successful former chairman and CEO of Metlife understands insurance company operations. AIG needs someone like that to maintain the remaining insurance enterprise and make it thrive. Absent an experienced and knowledgeable CEO like that, and they simply do not come cheap, I can't see how there is any hope of reviving the company so we can get our money back.