AIG Bonuses

AIG executives are claiming from $165 million to $450 million, depending on who you believe, in contractually stipulated bonuses after the company lost $60 billion last quarter, the largest quarterly loss by a private corporation in modern history.  The government has loaned or otherwise granted AIG with $170 billion in cash and has executed value guarantees for another several hundred billion dollars of toxic assets.  Needlesstosay, the press is all over the story and politicians are outraged, outraged.  The truth of the matter is that the government is using AIG to funnel money government money to other banks, both international and domestic, that the government could not, politically and/or legally, otherwise fund.  Why should United States taxpayers bailout out French, British, German, Swiss, and UAE banks??  Why should taxpayers give money to Goldman Sachs or Merrill Lynch??  The entire AIG bailout is tawdry and dirty.  The government should have refused any funds and forced the AIG holding company into bankruptcy, which would have led to AIG spinning off its profitable insurance subsidiaries.