Given that American Insurance Group, Inc. restated $3.9 billion of profit earlier this year, had various government investigations wipe out about $60 billion of market capitalization, was sued by regulators, and unceremoniously dumped its longtime chairman and CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, you would think that its leaders would at least acknowledge that the company’s year has been about as bad as that of Mike Lamb.
Not so, and the reason is that the cost of the foregoing setbacks was merely the price of forging a productive relationship with the Lord of Regulation and other government regulators, as current AIG interim Chairman Frank G. Zarb told AIG shareholders yesterday in the company’s annual meeting:

“A.I.G. in recent months has forged a productive, constructive, professional relationship with our regulators. This company is committed to working openly, without reservation.”

Thus, the foregoing statement makes clear that AIG has changed its tune toward regulators from the position espoused by Mr. Greenberg, who once observed that regulators turn “foot faults into murder charges.” It remains decidedly unclear whether that relationship will prove as valuable for AIG’s shareholders as Mr. Greenberg’s management of the company.