TBM Exclusive: Lunch Inside AIG

On arriving at one of AIG’s many buildings in downtown New York, there is little evidence that 300 million people would like to burn the place down. It is the home of AIG’s commercial-insurance division, a group that, like almost all of AIG, had nothing to do with the company’s villainy. The evil financial-products division works in Wilton, Conn., and London, far from the run-of-the-mill commercial types here. There is a lone camera crew outside interviewing what appears to be a man plucked from the sidewalk. He is venting his Main Street ire at the 30-plus-story building. There are no protesters. There are no police officers. There is only the building and its signage: American Insurance Group.

Inside, the guy manning the front desk is harried. Employees are filing out of the elevators; some laugh; some smile. They do not appear evil, nor do they appear depressed. They look like normal American workers; they just happen to have AIG identification badges.

The inside of every elevator has four memos affixed to its front-left wall. Three of the notes are from AIG’s CEO, Ed Liddy. One is in reaction to the recent bonus outrage, saying that “the public reaction, fanned by screaming headlines, is understandable.” In the letter, Liddy rhetorically asks, “What can we do?” He answers himself: “We keep doing what we’re doing.”

Upstairs, the fourth floor is filled with fluorescent lights and drab cubicles. The grayness of the place is interrupted only by a striking view of the East River.