Can We Nationalize Exxon And Health Care Too? By: Mark W Adams

AIG, American International Group, a DOW component I'd never heard of until it's former CEO, Bush Pioneer Maurice R Greenberg made headlines
in 2005 when the company was caught in some Enron-like accounting
schenanigans to the tune of $1.7 Billion -- which also implicated
Warren Buffet.  The scandal was quietly ignored by the SEC and Justice
Department as Mr. Greenberg went off to run the Nixon Institute (no,
really).

Essentially AIG's main business is NOT selling
insurance policies for your home or life, although they do dabble in
the retail market.  It's bread and butter -- and what makes it so
important to the foundation of our economy -- is selling RE-insurance
policies to other insurance companies that sell life and casualty to
us. (It also sells "terrorism" insurance.)  If there's anything close
to a central insurance company, this is it.  Only fitting that the Fed is about to take AIG over.  (Update: It's a done deal.)

In
the course of just a couple of weeks, you the the fine citizens of this
Teh Awesum country, without so much as an executive order, judicial
fiat or act of Congress, just on the say so of the Masters of the Universe
will now own control of the entire insurance sector through this giant
takeover on top of the bulk of all the nation's mortgages (real ones,
not just the sub-prime nonsense) with FHFA's conservatorship of Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac. 

The magical powers of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are stunning.

No
debate.  No hand wringing, demagoguery or finger-pointing shouts of
"Commie Plot!" greeted this news.  After all, it was accomplished under
the benign guidance of His Supreme Exalted Prince of Shrubness. (Where
the heck was Bushie during all this? Oh yeah, checking out the
prospects of picking up some cheap beachfront property in Galveston. 
Nevermind.  I'm sure he's got ice trucks and stuff to get in the way of and other heckuvajobin' to do.)

So
I got this crazy idea, see.  Instead of taking over industries the
public would just as soon not really own and nobody else would buy --
why not take over some profitable industries that the people would
benefit from and are profitable enough to help out with the deficit? 
If it's really that easy to simply nationalize trillions of dollars
worth of our gross domestic product, why are we even debating universal
health care or putting up with the oil companies ruling our world.

Put Paulson on the job!  At this rate, I should have new glasses by Friday.

Fuck
it, let's go get some more stuff, good stuff this time while we're at
it.  I'd like me a piece of AT&T and that Microsoft thingy too --
unless John McCain already has a prior claim since he invented all technology since chiseling out the first wheel.