"I just cant believe that my tax dollars are paying for some old white dude to have a corporate jet and an Armani suit. They gamble with their money, lose, and we bail them out.

What if we taught this exact same lessons to our kids?"

YEAH, I THINK THAT THEY KNOW THIS GAME - BANKS LIKE CITIGROUP ETC KNOW THAT THEY ARE TOO BIG TO FAIL & THEREFORE THEY GIVE LOANS OF .5MIL TO PPL WHO MAKE 50K A YEAR MAX, CAUSE THEY KNOW - EVEN IN A WORST CASE SCENARIO THE GOVT WILL BAIL EM OUT.

DavidScubadiver said:Well, we have always encouraged investing over saving in this country. We spend more than we earn, we consume more than we need, as a result we became fat and poor. And stupid. And that collective stupidity has come back to bite us in the ass. We will probably get some new rules and regulations to help prevent this from happening in the future.
And those rules and regulations will be lobbied away in about 10 years, when everyone has had time to forget this mess.

omarECD said:I'll provide a slightly different opinion than everyone else:

The "bailouts" for AIG was actually a loan, not free cash. The government is likely to turn a nice profit on the AIG deal, at an 11.5% interest rate. Other banks would likely enter the same deal in a healthy market- they just don't have the cash to put up right now.

With this new $1 Trillion deal, if the government is going to buy these assets, it should be for pennies on the dollar. We should not be covering the banks losses, just allowing them to have liquid money to cover short term obligations. If we can buy the assets for bottom dollar (which again, other companies would if they had the cash right now), then the govt/taxpayers will make money rather than lose money.

And if AIG can't pay back that loan, will the gov't be lending them more money to be pay back the first loan???

It just seems like more robbing Peter to Paul that's going to burn us further down the road. So, instead of a HUGE collapse now, we're going to have a REALLY GINORMOUSLY HUGE collapse later whether it's 5 or 20 years from now.

This type of action cannot be sustained and will only breed more of the same consequences. It truly makes me wonder where our country is headed. It has been said before but the analogy this compares to is giving crack to a crack-head...scary.

SaulHudson said:It just seems like more robbing Peter to Paul that's going to burn us further down the road. So, instead of a HUGE collapse now, we're going to have a REALLY GINORMOUSLY HUGE collapse later whether it's 5 or 20 years from now.You are assuming that the current credit crisis will continue indefinitely. There is a large but finite amount of bad debt in the system (the credit crunch is here precisely because no bank wants more bad debt), and once that bad debt is gone the system will recover.

Since the US now owns most of AIG, the taxpayers stand to benefit the most from that eventual recovery.

jeeves said:Where were these politicians when the very same financial companies were speculating on oil and food and driving the price upto $145 and 8 bucks for corn. Then we were told it is "supply and demand" and traders from GS and MS are not to blame. WTF.Speculation is an essential part of our economy, it allows industries that use a large amount of certain commodities to hedge against increases and keep their costs steady. The increase in commodity prices is indeed due to supply and demand. High oil prices are largely due to subsidies in Asia driving consumer demand, and we have high food prices thanks to both the rising middle class in China increasing demand for more expensive foods and our ill-advised ethanol program diverting corn crops for fuel instead of food.

jayK said:SaulHudson said:It just seems like more robbing Peter to Paul that's going to burn us further down the road. So, instead of a HUGE collapse now, we're going to have a REALLY GINORMOUSLY HUGE collapse later whether it's 5 or 20 years from now.You are assuming that the current credit crisis will continue indefinitely. There is a large but finite amount of bad debt in the system (the credit crunch is here precisely because no bank wants more bad debt), and once that bad debt is gone the system will recover.

Since the US now owns most of AIG, the taxpayers stand to benefit the most from that eventual recovery.Lucky US. Too bad no one asked me, I don't want any part of that "opportunity".

DavidScubadiver said:Maybe they would get jobs on Wall Street and benefit from all of this?

IF you can find a job when this is over.

EricGo07 said:Lucky US. Too bad no one asked me, I don't want any part of that "opportunity".Perhaps you would be happier living in a country ruled by democracy rather than the US, which is a representative republic.

Do you really think asking every US citizen whether or not they want the AIG bailout to happen is a productive use of time?

"Do you really think asking every US citizen whether or not they want the AIG bailout to happen is a productive use of time?"

Yeah, why not just ask one former Goldman Sacks CEO.