AIG: Nothin’ From Nothin’ Leaves Nothin’

Suggestions today that AIG’s equity value may be zero should come as no surprise to anyone who has read Michel Lewis’s account in Vanity Fair of how the firm’s Financial Products group dug itself such a big hole.

Lewis skewers former FP group head Joe Cassano, essentially arguing that Cassano’s tyranical control-freak management style effectively stifled any warning signs that AIG was becoming catastrophically exposed to credit default swaps insuring subprime mortgages.