Good AIG witness

Once treated as a joke, Hank Greenberg and Starr International insurance's lawsuit against the government gets another 'like' from Andrew Zajac and Christie Smythe in Insurance Journal;

[The judge in the case, Thomas] Wheeler didn’t explain his acquaintance with an expert witness who appeared on behalf of Starr, telling economist Michael Cragg, “I believe I remember you from a prior case.”

Cragg, the judge wrote in a previous opinion, “was the single most helpful expert” in a tax case in which Wheeler rejected BB&T Corp.’s bid to recover more than $688 million in taxes and penalties for a disallowed tax shelter.

In the Starr trial, Cragg testified the government lacked a strong economic rationale for the stringent terms of the AIG bailout, abused its power and treated the insurer “as a political scapegoat” for the financial crisis.

Which is a long way from, Greenberg is likely to lose his case, and for good reason. As Slate's Zachary Karabell predicted in October in an article titled Greenberg's Folly.