[plinkplonk]

"I concede that I didn't make my point well. Also true is that my goal was to counter the OP's argument, not present a forceful one."

I fail to see the difference.I would have thought the best way to counter someone's argument is to make a logical, coherent counter point.

I am not questioning your background. I am sure you have many valuable points to make and I look forward to hearing them. My background is irrelevant as regards how well you are expressing yourself.

Our disagreement (such as it is) revolves around your use of such terms as "pompous fools on HN who believe they know it all".

I'd much rather assume that someone on this board is intelligent (taking out the "fools" part) and has put some thought into what he/ she is saying (removing the "pompous" part). He could still be mistaken though. That doesn't make him a "fool" or "pompous".

It is very possible that you have more knowledge of finance and what happened at AIG than the hacking centric folks on this board. This is a good thing.

What I find less than optimal is your hurried/ill thought out arguments (" do you realize .. ") and your constant "attack the person vs the argument" style.

If you would use your knowledge of finance to illuminate the errors made by others (vs calling them names) with solid reasoning and argument that would be very valuable. That kind of high quality conversation is what HN was set up for.

I'm done with this thread and will let you have the last word if you so wish it. :-)

I am not a United States taxpayer and have no stake in the whole AIG debacle at all. Peace.

[Rod]

Dude, I have no problems with you. You pointed out some flaws in my arguments. You didn't act as if you were an expert. You didn't act as a pompous fool. My problem is with the collective belief here on HN that just because most of us are good at coding, then we are soooooooo smart that we can understand any topic without any study. That is naive and offensive. People in other fields who take decades to become proficient are not stupid. It takes a long time and a lot of effort to become an expert in any field. Period.

"I would have thought the best way to counter someone's argument is to make a logical, coherent counter point."

True. The problem, you see, is that I don't know what is happening at AIG! What I do know is that I know close to zero on that topic. What I do know is that many people try to paint things with a very broad brush and go for simplistic and superficial analyses.

You are right that my writing style is a bit too aggressive. I get downvoted all the time because of that. I should remind myself that I am no longer in the jungle-like financial world. And though I am not a U.S. citizen, unfortunately I am a U.S. tax-payer :-( Peace.