So AIG is losing talent. What exactly were they talented at?

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I am developing true allergies to the constant cries of the hobbled financial giants that if they can’t overpay their people by an order of magnitude, they will lose “talent.” We taxpayers are supposed to worry about that because unless these brilliant “talented” people help them earn boatloads of money, they will never be able to repay the bailout funds ((hey, I’m just paraphrasing here, not agreeing).

This is back in the news, of course, because Maurice Greenberg, AIG’s original architect, is starting another insurance company and is — I’ll bet you’ve guessed where this is going — raiding AIG for talent.

Huh?

Okay, let me stipulate — I agree that AIG and other beleaguered financial companies desperately need talent to get back on their feet. I also believe that Washington must – Must, MUST! — regulate esoteric financial instruments like credit default swaps so that there can never again be a situation where one company’s missteps cascade throughout the economy.

So my question: Isn’t the “talent” that AIG needs of the ilk that understands the ins and outs of insurance and of other actual businesses? Do we really want to see AIG get back on its feet by indulging in the same kind of risky trades and financial products that brought it to its knees in the first place?

Granted, not many people understand those complex financial instruments, and AIG does need folks to help it unwind the last of the toxic deals and trades and bets it made. Fine: I’ll bet there are plenty of smart ex-Lehman folks who could do it, and would happily work for the scant few million (poor souls) the government will let AIG pay. In fact, I’ll bet there are plenty of folks in Washington who’d happily make the switch — and for whom it would be a whopping pay increase.

As for Mr. Greenberg, he is probably smart enough to hire the folks who didn’t get AIG into the mess it’s in — and who thus are not needed to get it out. Catch this description in the NYTimes story — and delight with me at the punchline.

At 84, Mr. Greenberg remains larger than life. He spent nearly four decades forging A.I.G. out of private companies, devising its Rubik’s Cube structure and building it into the world’s largest insurance group, with a $1 trillion balance sheet. He lost most of his fortune when the company nearly collapsed last year.

And now, he appears to be starting over.

He was ousted from A.I.G. in an accounting scandal in 2005, and has insisted that he was not responsible for the problems that almost brought down A.I.G. last year — extremely risky trading in derivatives by its financial products unit. At the moment, C. V. Starr does not have a financial products unit, a spokesman for Mr. Greenberg said.