As the economy worsens, the masses have a target to direct their anger and frustration toward – AIG execs. It’s going to get uglier before it’s over.

The bonus’ are an egregious display of arrogance, stupidity, or both. However, every single one of us had better hope that AIG and the US government can recruit and retain the very best people available. It is nearly impossible to unwind $3 Trillion in bad investments – do you want someone who doesn’t know what they are doing involved in that – I sure don’t? Paying the bonus’ was stupid, but lets remember that the facts are only trickling in on this and need more time to roll out. Those bonus’ will be paid one way or another – and they will continue to be paid one way or another. I know for a fact that some of the best (worst) derivitive people in the industry were approached and declined positions in this unit with AIG. No one wants to work there – it’s toxic. We have a $170 billion investment in AIG and if we stand any chance of getting it back we had better not be penny wise and pound foolish – after all, the bonus is less than 1/10th of a percent of the whole “nut”. The talking heads will obfuscate, the politicians will politic, the voters will scream, and the traders on Wall street will read the moods and make money off of it. Why is anyone surprised that the chickens are missing after we locked the fox in there with them. What, unmitigated greed on Wall street….well I never…

So, snoop, it sounds like you ought to go start a blog to talk about what you view as gov’t complicity.

Personally, I’d be happy to hear any reasonable arguments about it.

Though I really think a better place to start is with the folks who granted AAA investment grade ratings to things like CDOs which were in fact extremely risky, as current circumstances have proven.

We KNOW that most congresscritters are not economists or mathematicians. So while I do expect them to lead and sort of be on top of things, I think it’s fair to note that the government decided to trust entities like Moody’s when it came to complicated (indeed, byzantine) investment vehicles.

The argument for such trust, quite reasonable at the time to many or even most, was that such groups as Moodys had a vested interest in making the correct judgments about such things, so they’d do a far better job of understanding what they were rating than anyone from the government. Regulation, in this view, would be both unnecessary and a tax on the economic lifeblood.

Current times have demonstrated that this argument had a serious fatal flaw of some type. I have quickly learned over the past month or more of snoop visits how often snoop is certain that the majority of the flaw always lies with the government. Yet I remain unenlightened as to what sort of actual prescriptive changes snoop favors that could be enacted in a democracy.

No! No! No! It’s an emergency! We’re all gonna die if we don’t take action! Who cares what the consequences are? Just DO something! ANYTHING!

NOW! NOW!!!

Again, another argument to spend some time reviewing legislation rather than acting in panic mode. Would also make me feel a lot better if Obama would implement his sunshine promise about legislation, allowing We The People five days to review and comment on legislation before he signs it.

Though I support the Obama administration, I have been disturbed by the choice of Geithner and nothing the treasury secretary has done has made me any less disturbed.

It certainly is. It’s also being fanned by certain high-profile senators and representatives, who prefer that all the attention is on AIG, instead of on their complicity in creating this crisis.

Cuz, ya’ know, god forbid we should talk about the finance committee’s or the Fed’s role in this mess.