Who was regulating AIG

The New York Times has a big article on the AIG failure.

I wonder how AIG was allowed to destroy itself. What about prudential regulation ?

Because it was not an insurance company, A.I.G. Financial Products did not have to report to state insurance regulators. But for the last four years, the London-based unit’s operations, whose trades were routed through Banque A.I.G., a French institution, were reviewed routinely by an American regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision.

WHAAAT the office that regulates S&Ls ?!? how could they possibly be competent to regulate CDSs ? That does not seem to me to have been a reasonable approach to regulation. However it does give me an excuse to re re post this photo




The man with the chain saw is James Gilleran then director of the Office of Thrift Supervision.