Tag Archives: Aig

Washington: Over the edge

Michael Lewis diagnosing political insanity as only he can:

1) To the political process all big numbers look alike; above a certain number the money becomes purely symbolic. The general public has no ability to feel the relative weight of 173 billion and 165 million. You can generate as much political action and public anger over millions as you can over billions. Maybe more: the larger the number the more abstract it becomes and, therefore, the easier to ignore. (The trillions we owe foreigners, for example.) (more…)

Bob and weave, bait and switch

Must reading from The Wall Street Journal on the never-ending AIG bailout and the political shenanigans and multi-billion-dollar cover-ups that go far beyond $165 million in contractual bonuses.

Taxpayers have already put up $173 billion, or more than a thousand times the amount of those bonuses, to fund the government’s AIG “rescue.” This federal takeover, never approved by AIG shareholders, uses the firm as a conduit to bail out other institutions.