AIG build in Los Angeles. Photo by Fred Prouser/Reuters
President Barack Obama reacted with “outrage” today to news of the insurance giant, AIG, handing out $165 million in bonuses after receiving $173 billion in government bailout funds. At the White House, the president lashed out at AIG: “This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed.”
The president pointed out that regular folks across the nation are struggling to stay afloat in this weak economy without the benefits of government bailout money or multi-million dollar bonuses. President Obama says his administration will “… pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses.”
Right on. If American International Group insists on giving bonuses to the executives that helped wreck the corporation, then it should pay back every dollar, nickle, and dime of bailout money to the government immediately. The fact that AIG officials have the nerve to pay out these bonuses and then justify them, shows the need for more federal regulation of large financial institutions. Also, I continue to believe that AIG is too big to function as a viable corporation and should be broken up into several smaller companies.
