Your Bailout Money at Work

Looks like high price executives are putting the trillion dollar taxpayer bailout of Wall Street to good use. The New York Times reported today:

“A week after the insurance giant, the American International Group, received an $85 billion federal bailout, executives at its life insurance subsidiary, AIG General, held a weeklong retreat at the exclusive St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. Expenses for the week, lawmakers were told, totaled $442,000, including $200,000 for hotel rooms, $150,000 for food and $23,000 in spa charges.

In addition, the former A.I.G. executive who led the London-based
division whose implosion is largely blamed for the insurance giant’s
downfall, Joseph J. Cassano, continues to receive $1 million a month
from the company, on top of the $280 million he received in the last
eight years.”

Taxpayers are outraged. Some Congressmen appear outraged. But after hearings showed evidence of similar abuse by Enron, nothing changed.