AIG to make the big payback?

Posted Mar 18th 2009 7:00AM by Mark Fightmaster
Filed under: Amer Intl Group (AIG)

My, how a day of reaction can change things. Late last night, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced that American International Group (NYSE: AIG) will repay the taxpayers up to $165 million that it doled out as bonuses.

According to Geithner's letter to congressional leaders, the government can't block the payments -- which were contractually agreed to before the government's bailout.

However, the public's "considerable outrage" over the payments was an epiphany for AIG, causing the bank to agree to pay the Treasury an amount equal to the payments. The Treasury will then deduct that amount from the $30 billion in government assistance that the company is slated to receive.

Basically, we won't receive any dollars in our pockets -- leaving many to feel like this is empty retribution.

Is this politicos feigning interest and allowing AIG to rob Peter to pay Paul -- or is this a decision that will have teeth? We will soon find out, but I do predict with 100% certainty that a lot of people will be happy and a lot of people will be mad. I also have a feeling that we haven't heard the end the AIG situation; and perhaps this is just the tip of the iceberg in the financial sector . . . we shall see.

Tags: american international group, AmericanInternationalGroup, featured, Geithner, retribution, Treasury Department, TreasuryDepartment