Remember when you quit loaning your (insert name of son,brother, sister, or friend) money because they just wouldn't do the things ncessary to straighten out financially?

Folks, it's called throwing money down a rathole and that's what we as a nation are doing now.

We're in for years of suffering whether we bail these crooks out or not. I say stop throwing good money after bad and let the chips fall where they may. We will be a stronger economy when we finally admit to ourselves that we cannot spend our way out of this.

But Al,

What do we do when the banks start to fail? When out ATM cards no longer work? When our checks are suddenly no good regardless of how much money we had in the bank?

What do we say to our parents when their retirement funds are destroyed?

Where will we go for mortgages to buy a home?

I can go on, but I think the "just let them fail" idea has other disasterous consequences for all of us. Are you sure you want to go there?

When will the public learn that without Banking there is no economy. The USA taxpayer got its wish to "Let'm Fail" when public outcry let Lehman file bankruptcy. Within hours the multi-Trillion dollar Libor froze. Hours thereafter AIG needed a bailout. Within hours thereafter Money Market panicked and froze Commercial Paper. I can go on and on, but the basics of finance is confidence. So now the taxpayer can lavish in a 10 Trillion dollar loss, which would have been about 30 Billion to rescue Lehman. Lehman failure mushroomed to rest of the world -- The world lost confidence in our policy -- it will get much worse before it gets better. Welcome to a new world.

AIG is a huge corporation with multiple divisions - not just a single entity. It is my understanding that they have the funds in other divisions that could shore up their company - but by law are unable to divert these assets.

If this is true, lawmakers need to look at their rules and stop throwing taxpayer dollars around.

Dan in #2...

Yes!

A rathole is a rathole. There are thousands of banks across the nation who didn't participate in these scams.

We can't be bumrushed into this. We don't need to have a financial system owned by the government.

The bailout would be much smaller, definitive, and might even work if we merely insured the deposits of these bad banks. The people would quickly then vote with their feet and redeposit their money in the more responsible banks that didn't get into this mess. We might be able to limp through this although it would hurt.

Do you think 850 billion (up from 700) will help create new mortgages? Next month it will be two trillion and it still won't be enough.

why are we just throwing good money after bad with aig? look they are a company just like any other. i say liquidate their assets and shut them down just like they would any other failing company. and finally you can dress up a pig but its still a damn pig!

What was worse at the AIG Congressional Oversight Committee hearings was the ultimate ignorance of Mr.Willumstad (the ex chairman and ex CEO of AIG). For that alone, he needs to be penalized. He made a neat compensation package for taking on the role of Chairman of AIG since Nov 2006 and what AIG shareholders got in return was an ignoramus chairman.

People, our monetary system is designed to perpetuate debt. If you dont understand that than you are another pawn. Goodluck to you all and i hope the people will see how evil this system really is. Someone will ALWAYS get left out to dry until there is one corporation left, one world govt. Thats the truth.

I think it's a bunch of crap. AIG is no better than a bank robber going into a bank and stealing them blind. But in this case it's a legal theft from the people. If they can spend 440,000 on a party for there ceo's they can back there own ass up. They pulled the wool over the Governments eyes and the people of this nation. AIG is already talking about taking there ceo's on another field trip that will cost thousands of taxpayers dollars. So we have to ask our selfs when do we put a stop to all this? When we the people are poor, hungry, and on the streets while these money hungry sharks are eating us alive.

The board of directors for each of these financial companies has not come to the limelight as they should...they are supposed to represent the shareholders' interests vs that of the officers of the company...they have failed miserably to offer any constructive criticism of actions of the companies...
most of them are getting paid a nice chunk of change and stock options to just be rubber stamps for whatever the CEO wants done and screw the shareholders...
they are all pigs feeding at the trough...
they need to be facing some charges for failing to do their fiduciary duties...

AIG.....put a shock collar on all of the idiots that think it's okay to go take a "retreat" to the tune of $450,000 , which included about $25,000 in spa treatments and extras, AFTER you and I "bailed them out!" Every time some idiot CEO thinks they need to spend my money in such a manner I would be more than happy to light them up. This is the type of "retraining" these gluttonous morons need!

The AIG wants more money?
Maybe they should have considered not spending 400,000+ on their little retreat.

Maybe everyone at AIG who approved the retreat, planned the retreat, went on the retreat should be fired before we give them anymore money.

Maybe they should be made to give the 400,000+ back!

Maybe we shouldn't bail out anyone without some serious oversight.

That bail out bill that congress passed is a joke. If they were serious there wouldn't have been more than 140,00 worth of pork attached to it.

The music sounds the same from every direction but one. I hate that the fed has anything to do with the performance of the world markets but fact is america is the heart of the current global economy. A very large portion of the market is currently occupied be foriegn companies and their money. As long as the overall opinion of our great nation is negative to the point that has come to reach over the last 5-8yrs the bottom has no end. The World at large is sending a message to america and our governing establishment. lt reads as follows, as long as you allow yourselves to be represented by greed and ignorance you've got no floor beneath you. We no longer are respected among those who helped propel our economy into the greatest period its ever seen. At this point we need to convince those investors that we are worthy of their trust.

How DARE those buffoons at AIG use bailout money (taxpayer money) ! to wine and dine themselves at a luxury resort when the rest of the nation is suffering. To say I am incensed is putting it mildly. These jerks need to be jailed and LET AIG fall into the rabbit hole forever. They are scum and should be treated as such. Perhaps they should be forced to live like the average American...worrying about food, gas prices, education and just generally how to survive the end result of the greed that still abounds. Wake up people and fasten your seatbelts, because this is ONLY the beginning.

Heads need to roll. Let's all find out who the executives are and send them a polite hello!