A $14 trillion economy hangs by a thread composed of (a) a comically cynical, pitchfork-wielding Congress, (b) a hopelessly understaffed, stumbling Obama administration and (c) $165 million. ...more

March 24, 2009

AIG employees have agreed to return about $50 million of the $165 million in bonuses. ...more

March 23, 2009

President Barack Obama says he cannot "govern out of anger" just because of public outrage over bonuses paid at financial institutions kept afloat by taxpayer dollars. ...more

March 23, 2009

President Barack Obama wagered significant political capital Sunday as he bucked a highly popular House measure to slap a punitive 90 percent tax on bonuses to big earners at financial institutions already deeply in hock to taxpayers. ...more

March 23, 2009

History will record the third week of March 2009 as Outrage Week in Washington. ...more

March 23, 2009

Struggling to contain the worst financial crisis in seven decades, the Obama administration wants to buy billions of dollars of toxic assets from banks to ease borrowing for consumers and businesses. ...more

March 22, 2009

I listened to the congressional hearing on the "bonus" hassle at AIG most of the afternoon. I feel this mess is really the fault of the Congress. I make this statement based on the fact that the stimulus bill was rushed and passed without debate by the Congress. They just passed something about which they knew nothing. At the time a sense of "panic" was created to the effect that, if there wasn't quick action not only a "national" but a "worldwide" financial catastrophe could occur. I wondered at the time how the "tanking" of one insurance company could cause such a worldwide disaster. I feel that the continuing bailout of AIG with billions and billions of taxpayers money, by Congress, has a deeper reason than what appears on the surface or what is being revealed to the public. ...more

March 22, 2009

A busload of activists representing working- and middle-class families paid visits Saturday to the lavish homes of American International Group executives to protest the tens of millions of dollars in bonuses awarded by the struggling insurance company after it received a massive federal bailout. ...more

March 21, 2009

I thought it humorous at first and then downright sad as I witnessed the foolishness and uselessness of our elected officials in dealing with the economic crises they have inflicted on our country. The latest is the AIG debacle, as they purport to attempt retrieval of $165 million in bonuses they knew about months ago that are protected under wording of the amendment they passed for the bailout. ...more

March 21, 2009

These days, March Madness has taken on a meaning not connected to the NCAA mens basketball tournament. This madness is an outbreak of phony baloney outrage resulting from the economic meltdown. ...more

March 21, 2009