http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson03182009.html

Here?s the problem with all the hoopla over the $135 million in AIG bonuses: This sum is only less than 0.1 per cent ? one thousandth ? of the $183 BILLION that the U.S. Treasury gave to AIG as a ?pass-through? to its counterparties. This sum, over a thousand times the magnitude of the bonuses on which public attention is conveniently being focused by Wall Street promoters, did not stay with AIG. For over six months, the public media and Congressmen have been trying to find out just where this money DID go. Bloomberg brought a lawsuit to find out. Only to be met with a wall of silence.

the rest of the article is a reasonable analysis, as far as it goes. worth a read, imho.

What did Goldman, and all the other counterparties, know about AIG’s financial condition at the time they executed the swaps or other contracts? Had they done adequate due diligence to see whether they were buying real protection? And why shouldn’t they bear a percentage of the risk of failure of their own counterparty?

obviously, counterparty failure is not a risk when you are GS. you just call up the Fed and Treasury Dept. bosses and tell them to cover it. no problem.

what i am more intersted in is the structure and basis of the payouts. what were the bets made on? what money did the gamblers put down? what ROI does the payout represent? really, this is a scam in Madoff proportions (x100). HA!

Spitzer should be Treasury Secretary. We need a “cop” like him. Someone that knows the insides and outs of all these banking scams in charge of that den of iniquity.