Insurance companies NEVER cease to amaze me. Last week Allstate showed how it's making boatloads on your backs by raising those insurance premiums.

And today's insurer of the day is AIG. I complained previously about AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg because he tries to blame evil "trial lawyers" for every problem AIG has while he makes insane amounts of money. In Hank Greenberg on The Forbes Four Hundred Richest in America, the article describes Greenberg's obscene wealth of $4,400,000,000.00 - that's FOUR-BILLION-FOUR-HUNDRED-MILLION-DOLLARS.

Don't worry, things are getting even better for Hank Greenberg at the American entrepreneur's expense, Rising business insurance costs boost AIG profits.

Greenberg calls for "tort reform" (taking your legal rights & limiting what you can recover - so he can make more money) while telling sole proprietor's, partnerships and corporations how he's going to raise business insurance rates even more. See AIG Chairman Sees Rates Rising Into 2004. Forget tort reform, call for insurance reform. "Earnings were fueled by price hikes in insurance premiums to businesses."

Interestingly, Maurice Greenberg - WHILE SUING HIS SON's COMPANY - has brought to light one of many insurance company abuses. In "Ace in the Hole," Forbes explains how AIG accuses: Ace Insurance "and a predecessor company of trying to dodge billions of dollars in asbestos claims by moving thousands of insurance policies out of its Insurance Co. of North America subsidiary into a tiny, underfunded rump company called Century Indemnity. AIG calls this 'a shell game.'"

So let's see, an insurer tried to shortchange asbestos and mesothelioma victims...

...never happens?