Any thoughts?
IMO, this is an enormous mistake. It sends a mixed message. The Fed hasn't ever bailed out anything besides a bank, and if now there's a chance that the Fed will help any failing institution, how the fuck do they expect investors to help? You know? Why spend your allowance on a present if you know mom will kick some money in if you play your cards right? Why would you ever give a failing institution the 10 bil it needs if you know that the government might take care of it if you don't? It's the private sector, that means investors take the losses.

and why AIG but not lehmans? How do they choose which ones to bail out? It's all bullshit. Taxpayers are getting conned.

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Stars Wars Fan is black, suffers from assburgers syndrome, is autistic(and definitely not the savant type), ugly, and most precisely: A retard.

The argument was that letting AIG fall would create a very unstable climate - especially for the banks. It ultimately IS due to the stupidity of these companies during the 'good days' that has led to this whole fucking mess, but hey you know they were greedy as usual. The problem arises when them paying for their mistakes makes US all pay, ie. an economic depression will affect us all.

It's mind-boggling really. A couple years ago bush was begging congress for an extra 80 billion for the Iraq war, and now from one day to the next Americans just foot that kind of bill like it's nothing.
It's time for a new philosophy on politics and businesses. The constitution just couldn't predict some of the shit going on now with mega corporations and corporate welfare.

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Stars Wars Fan is black, suffers from assburgers syndrome, is autistic(and definitely not the savant type), ugly, and most precisely: A retard.

I don't think it's necessarily that we need a new philosophy developed, but rather cut the bullshit about loopholes and bring it back to the people as whole, not some greedy fuckbag who's lacking a conscience.

And yes, that sounds kinda like communism/socialism, but no, that's not what I'm aiming for, although universal healthcare would be tons better than that thing we have now.

I don't think the government should bail these companies out to begin with. Because now your left with choices, AIG or Lehman's, who gets saved who doesn't. 70% of all businesses in the USA are "small businesses", I bet you if your local hardware store (not home depot but the local family owned hardware store) tanked, nobody would be there to save them, why should the government come to the aid of some huge company like AIG. This problem will take care of itself, the investors, the banks and all the others will come out and sue the loan companies. Companies shouldn't be bailed out because then they come to expect it in hard times and will repetitively hire bad management.

Maybe because there was already an ongoing negotiation for Barclays to buy Lehmans in its entirety until last Sunday. Possibly they didn't know how f-ed Lehmans was and suddenly found out and decided that they didn't want to buy it. So they can just call in a favor from DC to not bail them out and only buy a portion of the company to make it look like... "Hey we are saving some jobs! Your CEO did you wrong, but here we are to save the day!" I'm just guessing, but it could have been just a way for Barclays to get out of the deal and only half ass their commitment.

What happens if the 80 billion wont last long enough to hold the company off untill it can start making a profit again. I highly doubt they were at the bottom of there losses at bankruptcy, being an insurance company. Well i guess they just get another check, sounds like the american taxpayer is fucked for good now weather this company can do good once again or still fail.

Pfft, they'll pocket the $85 billion and let the company fall. With that kind of money, they don't have to care what happens.

You have to look at the fine points though.

The government will own 80% of AIG now, after they sell off their stuff and get their feet back on the ground.

If AIG sunk... it would immediately cause a nat'l crisis. Hell, maybe even an international crisis. They were pretty fcking big. An international company going under just isn't something that happens usually, much less one that involves insurance.

The government probably saw the risks and said "We can help AIG out... but Lehman gets what they deserve to send a message out to the other insurance companies that they won't get any help in this matter."