Talk:American International Group/Archives/2020
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Article needs a lot of work.
For example, our lead says, "In 2011 the nationalization of AIG was ruled illegal,[14] and after regaining autonomy, . . ," and doesn't emphasize just how close AIG was to bankruptcy and just how damaging that would have been to the overall economy.
In the section 2008 Liquidity crisis . . : "because some believed its failure would endanger the financial integrity of other major firms that were its trading partners . . "
Only some?
Super understating is not necessarily being encyclopedic. And the damage could have been quite a bit broader than merely trading partners.
We want to be middle of the road, going with what a variety of good references say, no more, no less.
Then, there's a picture looking upward at the AIG building with clouds in the background. And the other glamorous pictures of buildings, and a sports jersey. Too much of the lead reads as a puff piece.
Yes, a lot of work needed. FriendlyRiverOtter (talk) 17:06, 11 January 2020 (UTC)
New section
This [1] new section added to the article, on slave insurance, is obviously inaccurate since slavery was completely abolished in the U.S. by late 1865, and AIG did not exist until 1919 at the very earliest. The two citations in the section do not confirm any of the claims made in the section. Perhaps some material from the two citations could be added to the article Slave insurance in the United States. In any case, this inaccurate section should be removed from this article. 136.56.54.123 (talk) 02:19, 19 June 2020 (UTC)
To elaborate on all of the inaccuracies in the section, which was added in early June [2], here is a bit of a list:
- AIG did not "profit from the slavery of black people in America". AIG did not even exist until 1919 at the very earliest, and that was only in Asia until 1926. AIG did not even operate in the U.S. until 1926. Slavery did not exist anywhere in the U.S. after 1865, the end of the Civil War. Therefore, AIG never issued any slavery-related policies.
- Slavery was not "formally outlawed in 1808". The importation of slaves into the U.S. was what was outlawed in 1808. Slavery was legal in various U.S. states until 1862 (Emancipation Proclamation) and/or the end of 1865 (end of the American Civil War, followed by the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution).
- The "[slave insurance] claim from AIG [which] was taken out on a slave called Charles for $550 USD" was not issued by AIG. The citation does not name what insurance firm issued the policy, only that the insurance claim was mentioned in a magazine article that AIG produced for examination. The claim couldn't have been issued by AIG, since AIG did not exist until 1919 and did not operate in the U.S. until 1926 -- 54 and 61 years after slavery had completely ceased to exist in the U.S.
- "Many companies involved in insuring slaves destroyed records of their slave claims to avoid negative fallout in modern times." This claim is not substantiated in either citation used in the entire section [3], [4].
In short, not one single claim or sentence in the entire section is accurate. The section needs to be removed, as its overarching claim is grossly inaccurate, POV, and potentially libelous. Not one singe part of the section is either accurate or usable here. I have now moved what is encyclopedically noteworthy from the two citations to the article Slave insurance in the United States. 136.56.54.123 (talk) 03:53, 21 June 2020 (UTC)
Additional information:
The two government links below make it clear that the slave insurance policies, referred to in the two citations [5] [6] used in that inaccurate section that was added to this wiki article, were issued by the United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York (commonly called "US Life" or "U.S. Life"), not by AIG. US Life was founded in 1850. As both links below note, AIG acquired US Life in 2001, when it acquired American General Corporation and its 17 subsidiaries. If you search for the word Charles within each of the two links below, you will find the material detailing the US Life slave insurance (which AIG had nothing to do with since it didn't exist until 1919).