Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Only The Feds Would Give Somebody 85 Billion For A Biz Worth 6 Billion

The 85 Billion dollar bailout of AIG is hard to figure. Even after the announcement, the total market value of AIG is only about 6 billion dollars...see the market cap at Yahoo Finance.

So who is helped by heaping 85 billion into a company worth 6 billion? The taxpayer? Not really. Our little accounts are mostly FDIC insured. The big retirement accounts like CALPERS? No. Those guys have ridden AIG stock down all the way from $70 per share to the $2 a share it is today. So for them it's already a total loss. This entire bailout is about protecting legacy interests: those people and companies that feed our elected officials need for campaign cash.

We need to stop supporting companies that have already failed by throwing money into a building that is already on fire.

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