Who Is Ed Liddy, and What Did He Do Before AIG?

Mainstream media have portrayed Ed Liddy, currently the $1-a-year head of embattled AIG, as a good guy who gamely took on a bad job, unwinding the trillions in bad deals that the Financial Products guys devised. Thursday's New Orleans Times-Picayune paints a slightly different picture. According to that story, Liddy ran Allstate Insurance during the first decade of its spinoff from Sears, a period during which the company perfected techniques for getting tougher with customers filing claims. And, there's this:

Evidence emerged after Hurricane Katrina that Allstate shifted the burden of paying for wind damage covered by its homeowners policies onto taxpayers by overcharging the federal flood program.

Overcharging the feds? Ring a more current bell?

Comments

[wouzzie]

These are just pseudo businessman. They have not founded the company or whatever, they are just great manipulators with one goal, satisfying their own interest. When things get though they go to their big brother the government, like true cowards, but not losers.

[sposton]

The best way to deal with these people is through taxes. The income curve rapidly zooms into stratosphere from 99th percentile. Well, lets have some kind of sliding scale that ends up at 90% tax. It is not like this is unprecedented in the US history. You only have to go back to 1950's to the days of the that great socialist Eisenhower. ;-)

[Pero]

hmm - does anybody still remembers CEO of Texaco or was it Exon - who retired with $400M+ extra bonus?
Probably to be silent on how he divided Iraq's oil among oil companies...

[schatsie]

It was Exxon...and that did not include his apartment in Manhattan and London and his executive health care and car and chef and chauffuer...

[LMPE]

I don't trust any one of these people.

[OVERSITE]

why didnt paulson tell us aig money going to goldman sachs


its another chaney huge conflict of interest

[OVERSITE]

hank paulson and liddy are both crooks


just made biggest heist for goldmam sachs in history.


why no congressman ask him this yesterday

[mommadona]

Here is Edward Liddy

http://mapper.nndb.com/maps/691/000004679/

[chgoborn]

So in Ed Liddy is STILL a Director of Goldman Sachs - lovely.

[chgoborn]

Mr. Liddy, while running Allstate, was also on the Board of Directors (audit committee, no less) of Goldman Sachs with Hank Paulson as then-CEO. Later, when Hank Paulson was Treasury Secretary under Bush he asked Liddy to come out of retirement and run AIG. What a non-coincidence that Goldman received the largest amount of counterparty payments from AIG's bailout cash. So there's something else he did before AIG.

[FinallyFreeOfGeorgeIII]

The dollar-a-year thing is transparent. Obviously he isn't going to do this sort of job and then ride off into the sunset. In a couple of years, he'll be back to multimillion dollar bonuses like all the other jackals.
If Tony Soprano weren't a fictional character, he'd be kicking himself for not going to business school so he could learn to really do a bust-out.

[fuzzwald]

Business school at Harvard, maybe. But I suspect that the fortunes of these fellows is more a result of birthright and patronage than of any special skills acquired in b-school. A business degree is not that hard to get compared to, say, an engineering degree.

[holeybuybull]

Once upon a time there were gangsters who offered localized "protection" for small businesses. These rackets were illegal. Then some smart guy decided to organize, expand the market, and go legit. Now we have "legalized protection rackets" known as insurance companies.

[apoyo]

Why is this surprising? Isn't Capitalism the way? Now you have capitalism run amok. There are no clean hands. This is what happens when you worship the almighty dollar.

[monoxboogie]

No it isn't. It's what happens when Greed gets control of policy and business decision making. Wanting to be successful doesn't mean you're on the road to evilness.

[Robert Cantor]

u 2 agree more then you dis; being successful does not mean worshiping the almighty dollar. But those who do desire more then mere 'sucess'

[PhillyQuaker]

AllSnake bites! My friend worked at a local agency part-time. Her clients loved her and she treated them like royalty. If a bind order came in for her when she was out of the office, the office manager would change the producer's name from hers to his. So he could pilfer a measly $30, $40. from her at a shot. Plus they are terrible at paying covered claims. Seems like not much of a jump for this guy to go from AllSnake to PIG.

[kimk3]

Liddy also had no problem cancelling the contracts of his 6000 highest paid agents when at Allstate. They sued but apparently lost.

[oldtree]

Harry is again on the front line where the media is far behind. Why is it that the people we find funny are also the ones that are willing to ask questions that matter?
Allstate insurance, that was one of the biggest scams there was. Almost total rejection of claims. I hope they take this fellow out and lose him in the swamp. He can talk his way out.

[Buckzollo]

Harry you are the Patron Saint of Yeah U Rite.