However, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury agree that the risks and potential costs to consumers, municipalities, small businesses and others who depend on AIG for insurance protection in their lives, operations, pensions, and investments, as well as the risks to the wider economy, of not providing this assistance during the current economic environment are unacceptably large.
1 The second portion of my testimony will address the unusual stress imposed on credit markets in recent months and how that stress may affect small businesses. By necessity, the latter remarks are preliminary and subject to an unusually high degree of uncertainty.