How the great AIG heist was pulled off
Alan Maass traces the rise and fall of insurance giant AIG--from the part it played in the mid-decade Wall Street financial boom, to its new incarnation as a government-backed conduit for transferring bailout money to the big banks.

IMAGINE YOURSELF at a casino where you start gambling on games of chance you don't understand, where the rules are being made up on the spot. You bet hundreds of times more money than you have, and you lose. You're not only broke yourself, but you're taking down other players who let you play with their money--and the casino itself, which didn't ask to see your chips when you made bets.

You'd consider yourself lucky to stay out of jail, right?

Ah, but you aren't a Wall Street executive!

In the world of high finance, the rules are a little different. When you lose, the federal government steps in to cover your losses. You get to keep paying yourself a nice bonus, more in a year than most people will see in a lifetime of work. And you--along with colleagues who've changed job descriptions and now work for the government--get to plan the "rescue" to your collective advantage.

Link to con.