According to Moody’s Investors Service, AIG may actually be able to pay back its loans from the government. The company posted its second straight quarterly profit last week thanks to a recovery in the value of investments.

Moody’s said that as long as the operations of AIG and other markets continue to get better and stabilize, then they will likely be able to repay the government with heavy government support in its restructuring plan.

With the government now likely to recoup its investment, it has incentive to continue supporting AIG and its various creditors, Moody’s said. The agency affirmed AIG’s long-term rating of A3, the seventh-highest investment grade, with a negative outlook.

Credit spreads on AIG’s 8.25 percent notes due in 2018 tightened by 15 basis points on Tuesday to 751 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, according to MarketAxess.

Over the past year, AIG has taken more than $180 billion in financial aid from the government. Eighty percent is currently owned by taxpayers in the United States. While AIG is looking for someone to buy major assets, it is having a very difficult time finding anyone to buy from them.

I am actually surprised to see any company saying that AIG will be able to pay back the better part of $200 billion to anyone…especially from a company that went nearly bankrupt.

I don’t see why anyone would spend their time investing in a company like this. I sometimes wonder if the government knew what they were getting themselves into with AIG if they would have lent the money to them without and major consequences (remember executive retreats and those outrageous bonuses?).

Source

After all the complaining that I’ve done about eBay in the last week or so, I thought I would touch on the headline that caught my attention last night; Meg Whitman, the previous CEO of eBay, will be running as a republican candidate for governor of California.

She wants to cut taxes in the nearly bankrupt state. Does she really think that’s going to work? Of course, that’s all something that she is going to say so she can win the republican position on the ballot.

She had this to say:

“If elected, I will identify and implement at least $15 billion in permanent spending cuts from the state budget. I’ll eliminate redundant and under performing government agencies and commissions, and I will reduce the state work force by at least 40,000 employees. That’s a 17 percent reduction that would reset the work force to 2004-2005 levels and save the state a projected $3.3 billion annually.”

She should think about eliminating underperforming staff and departments at her company before she starts thinking about running for an office in a state that has been handing out IOUs to creditors.

Then again, who better to run for the governor than someone who is completely out of touch with the general public and her constituents. After all, up to this point, it doesn’t seem like the citizens of California are too happy with how the budget crisis is being handled.

Perhaps she would be an okay governor of the state, I just have serious issues with eBay and the structure of the company.

Here’s the update to what’s going on with our eBay situation by the way: Yesterday, eBay’s billing department (the one we are completely unable to get on the phone) e-mailed Chris again telling him that he could mail his payment now because they have suspended his account. I suppose that’s fine because we’ve decided that we’re going to take our business elsewhere due to the company’s complete lack of competence regarding this situation. If something like this were to happen again, we definitely do not want to find ourselves just wondering what to do.