Never Ending Story

Samuel Johnson, 18th century literary sage, evaluated a manuscript of an aspiring writer - "Your work is both original and good. Unfortunately, the parts that are good are not original and the parts that are original are not good!"

More outbursts on AIG (See my posting 2 days ago).

The CEO of insurance giant AIG told furious members of Congress that some of the firm's executives have begun returning all or part of bonuses totaling $165 million paid.

Overall, AIG has paid $220 million in retention awards to its financial products employees - $55 million in December and $165 million had to be paid this month.

President Obama, said: "I know Washington's all in a tizzy and everybody's pointing fingers at each other and saying, 'It's their fault, the Democrats' fault, the Republicans' fault.' Listen, I'll take responsibility. I'm the president."

(That’s why he is a respected statesman unlike most leaders – thou should not be named -who will not take responsibilities but blame it on the rain, act of God or hide under the ‘abused’ kangaroo court!)

"We didn't draft these contracts. It is appropriate when you're in charge to make sure that stuff doesn't happen like this. These bonuses, outrageous as they are, are a symptom of a much larger problem. It's a culture where people made enormous sums of money taking irresponsible risks that have now put the entire economy at risk. I think people have a right to be angry. I'm angry."

(We are angry too!)

The government has intervened heavily, fearing that AIG's collapse could have unraveled America's, and, perhaps, the global financial system. AIG has taken $170 billion in federal bailout money. AIG now is 80% owned by the government, meaning any profit or loss directly effects long-term taxpayer indebtedness.

(Similarly back home, MAS, RapidKL, Time and counting, were being bailed out by taxpayers. The culprits went off richer by cashing out the government’s coffer!)