Guess What: Banks' Christmas Bonus Was On You!

These are the people who Know What's Best. Remember that as they work to take over all of healthcare and the planetary climate.

Officials managing the multibillion dollar bailout of insurance giant American International Group Inc. bungled the first rescue and may have overpaid other banks to wind down AIG's business relationships, a government watchdog says.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York--headed at the time by now Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner--paid AIG's business partners face value for securities so they would cancel insurance-like contracts AIG had written and ease the firm's liquidity crunch. But at least one of those partner banks would have canceled the contracts for less...

...The initial bailout "was done with almost no independent consideration of the terms of the transaction or the impact that those terms might have on the future of AIG," the report says.

As a result, billions more than necessary went to U.S. banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.; Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America Corp.; and Wachovia, now part of Wells Fargo & Co.; and European banks including Societe Generale, Deutsche Banke, UBS and Calyon, it says

It's easy to understand why Goldman Sachs is going to pay ultra-mega-biggie bonuses this year; a sane Government may just decide to take the money back.

But then, "a sane Government" is now an oxymoron.