The Spitzer Effect: Big Government Regulation Makes Companies More Inefficient

The New York Sun reports on AIG:

In a letter filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Greenberg, ousted from the leadership of his own company after a public campaign against him by Mr. Spitzer, recounts the record of the company under the Spitzer-installed management.



“AIG last week announced a net loss for the first quarter of 2008 of $7.81 billion,” the letter says. “It is the worst performance in AIG’s approximately 40-year history and follows almost equally poor results from last quarter, which was the worst quarter in the company’s history before this quarter. Over the last twelve months shareholders of AIG have lost $80 billion in the aggregate.”

Mr. Greenberg said that in the more than three years since he left the company, “AIG has added 24,000 employees, many in cost center functions. This is the equivalent of two Army divisions.”

No wonder why New York state doesn't have as many corporate headquarters as it used to.