Bringing in Summers and Geithner was a big mistake, as the last few months have shown. Geitner could care less that his former cronies are still taken care of.

if you really wanna get depressed. They been pulling an Enron. Things may be WAY worse than we think.

Unfortunately, this might end up being Obama's undoing the way carter got nailed by the gas crunch. He should never have trusted the same people who caused this disaster, instead of going straight to the people, those of us who need help and could make get results from that amount of money.

That is his main problem, there is nothing to show for everything that has been spent. The people in charge should have been fired, salaries should have been limited to very low six figures, take it or leave it. If the employees did not like it, let them go our and find a job in this climate.

Wall Street has not changed their greedy ways, and for some unknown reason, Obama is looking the other way.

At least Bush's handling of Katrina was essentially uncaring neglect, incompetence, cronyism and bureaucratic disorganization with a little racism thrown in.

Obama's handling of AIG is quite clearly conspiracy to commit premeditated larceny of an astronomical sum, the greatest theft in World History, carried out by the very officials elected to do things differently. That Tim Geithner, Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs AND the current CEO of Goldman Sachs met with AIG and plotted out this whole process which has in effect trasferred at least 50 billion dollars into Goldman Sachs private possession, is at least a guaranteed conviction for racketeering under the RICO laws. With Obama in on every step of this fraud, he is culpable at the least of grounds for impeachment.

"Goldman has maintained that it got no bailout money from the Treasury. But in fact it received some $13 billion through AIG. More troubling is that the original plan to bail out AIG was concocted at a meeting held last fall, run by then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson who, before becoming treasury secretary, had been CEO of Goldman Sachs. Also attending the meeting was Lloyd Blankenfein, the current CEO of Goldman Sachs. Also at the meeting: Tim Geithner, then head of the New York Fed."

This clandestine meeting that has so seriously impacted America, is strangely reminiscent of the secret meeting Cheney held with the Oil companies prior to the attack on Iraq.

Nothing has changed.

As usual - but no concrete suggestions. Obama is dealing with the aftermath of a flawed plan implemented by his predecessor. Easier to be a critic than to actually have to deal with the situation at hand. The faux populism is getting tiring.

Hey Bobby! Where were you as a member of the Clinton administration when the Glass-Steagall bill was being repealed, debt swaps permitted, bank practices left untouched, etc? (Minor internal objectins?) What did you do as Secretary of Labor when you saw that pension plans were being underfunded and investing in risky areas, etc? Why don't you defend Elliot Spitzer now, quote Galbreath, Krugman and others indicating whether you are a monetarist as is the crew you criticise? A nice mea culpa as a preface would also help.

Hey Jonathan-

I'm trying to discern a cogent point there. What? Because other bad shit has repeatedly gone down, we have no right to point up current malfeasance?

Seriously, are the only people capable of clearing up this mess working on Wall Street? And dining together? Holding power lunches about how to get in on this new corporate welfare?

How in the world can you tell your best buddy that he can't profit from your good fortune?

Either Geithner needs a new set of friends, or Obama needs a new Treasury Secretary.

1. Enforce anti-trust legislation on AIG. Break off the insolvent part (derivatives) and force it into bankruptcy. The taxpayers will still be on the hook for billions, but we'll pay pennies on the dollar compared to our current "obligations" as 80% "owners" of AIG.

2. Completely nationalize the (supposedly) solvent parts of AIG (home, life, auto insurance, etc.) to protect consumers. Fire all current executives and hire replacements at civil servant wages.

3. Nationalize through FDIC any commercial AND investment banks that have received TARP funds, either directly or indirectly (Goldman Sachs!). See #2 re: executives.

4. Reinstate basic tenets of Glass-Steagall regarding separation of investment & commercial banks.

5. Nationalize the Federal Reserve, while we're at it. Make it part of the Treasury.

5. Reinstate laws protecting consumers from usury.

6. Wait for Hell freeze over before any of the above takes place.

yeah. If I were king (or maybe even obama):

- axe Geithner

- axe Summers

- AIG's next bailout: $0. Let em go down. It's not like they got no rescue. But they're a black hole of money. And they seem to have no sense of gratitude. Let em stand in the unemployment line after the Lehman brothers.

- grab some bank. Isn't there some other bank the taxpayers own 80% of? We can take it, cut off the heads of the higher ups cuz they fucked up, and just start using that mechanism to make loans to the people. The personnel in the bank already know how to do it, and only the Government has the cash and the will. That's where the next $xxx billion should go.

The old quadruple double double reverse. Pure genius.

It's true that the bailout has seriously deteriorated my respect for Obama. Maybe he will turn out to be a fine president, but he will not be remembered for his handling of this crisis, at least not positively.

We're facing a moment of change not brought on at the ballot box. Truths we long believed—that market forces could contain risk, could manage risk—truths we invested in heavily have turned out to be false. AIG sold "insurance" on the global economy (or course, it wasn't really insurance, it was greedy traders making bets on the failure of others—the CDS market) but couldn't pay the tab.

Obama is approaching this like he's waiting for the storm to pass, so we can return to business as usual. That can't happen. "Business as usual" involves continuing to give your money—your retirement, your savings—to the same fools that lost it so thoroughly the first time. Now the curtain is drawn and we recognize reality: they never knew what they were doing. And things just can't be the same.