Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying

The United States government is colluding with the banks to rob the taxpayer. That, in a nutshell, is the newly shaped Tim Geithner bank rescue plan. That, in a nutshell, was the Hank Paulson bank rescue plan that has already stolen $350 billion of taxpayer funds, plus over $175 billion in funds directly to AIG, and [...]

Barack Obama was outraged yesterday over the AIG bonuses. He was OUTRAGED. He said yesterday:
This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed.
Under these circumstances, it’s hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. How do they justify this [...]

There are now serious questions being asked about Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s role in the AIG bonus scandal. It is clear now that Geithner knew long before this weekend about the AIG bonuses. Yet, it was not until the bonuses had been handed out - and the resulting public outrage -, that the administration jumped [...]

Let me get straight to the point. If the Obama administration gives AIG the additional $30 billion that it says it will, then it is the Obama administration that is using taxpayer money to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to AIG’s employees. So, if the Obama administration is really that outraged over [...]

My favorite economist, Austan Goolsbee, was all over the media today talking about AIG’s bonus program on the backs of American taxpayers. As I was driving back from work this evening, I heard Goolsbee on NPR bashing AIG. He was also on MSNBC’s Hardball taking a whack at the bonus program. Suddenly Goolsbee is everywhere, [...]