So, the taxpayers are played for suckers again and have to bailout AIG by the Bush regime that helped cause this financial and economic debacle by ignoring oversight and regulation of their high rolling corporate pals.

 

Meanwhile, these venal Wall Street institutions that caused this 21st century Great Depression like catastrophe are feeding at the government trough swilling taxapayers' money.

 

McClatchy Newspapers reports: "The Federal Reserve Board stepped in Tuesday night to provide an $85 billion emergency loan to American International Group in return for a nearly 80 percent stake in the teetering insurance and finance giant.

"In another unprecedented move to shore up the fragile global financial system, the Fed did what two days ago seemed unthinkable. It made the huge loan to AIG, which has assets valued at more than $1 trillion and effectively took ownership of in a company that isn't the kind of institution it regulates.

"Senior Fed officials, speaking on the condition that they wouldn't be identified because of ongoing negotiations, said it wasn't yet determined whether the AIG portfolio will rest at Treasury the Fed. The officials said that AIG stock will serve as collateral for the loan.

"Defending the lifeline for AIG, the Fed officials said that the insurance giant posed unique threats to the global finance system. Financial markets, they said, had Securities and Exchange Commission procedures for the failure of securities firms, but not for insurance behemoths. AIG is active in a number of global markets and has extensive retail activities in the U.S.

"Democrats promised congressional hearings soon on the AIG rescue.

"Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, promised in a statement to "ask some crucial questions on behalf of the American people: How will this action affect taxpayers” who have already been asked to commit hundreds of billions of dollars to help stabilize large financial institutions? To what extent will it calm the markets ”or just add to the uncertainty?"

Meanwhile, McSame the Clueless, is absolutely a strong deregulatory adherent and promoter.  However,  this former chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, doesn't even know what his formercommittee does, wrongly insisting it had economic oversight duties, which it definitely does not since that is the purview of the Senate Banking Committee.  This man is incompetent!

And the NYTimes reports: "With time running out after A.I.G. failed to get a bank loan to avoid bankruptcy, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the Fed chairman,Ben S. Bernanke, convened a meeting with House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to explain the rescue plan. They emerged just after 7:30 p.m. with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke looking grim, (bold added) but with top lawmakers initially expressing support for the plan. But the bailout is likely to prove controversial, because it effectively puts taxpayer money at risk while protecting bad investments made by A.I.G. and other institutions it does business with."

Here is Jonathan Tasini's bullseye comment on this Times story:

"...these guys have no idea what to expect and what will happen. It is the proverbial finger-in-the-dike strategy: plug a hole one place and, bam, another one opens up.

"We--taxpayers--are now on the hook for another $85 billion. You can take all the Congressional earmarks in total and it doesn't come anywhere close to the cost to us so let's focus the debate on the right thing."

Yet, Nancy Pelosi took impeachment of the criminal Bush regime off the table.  First order of business next congressional should be a new Democratic Speaker of the House; lose Pelosi, Hoyer and Emanuael.