Ben Bernanke says he is very angry about bailed-out insurance giant AIG, said Scott Jagow in Marketplace, which is the most emotion the Fed chairman, who usually testifies before Congress “like a zombie,” has ever shown. Still, his Senate hearing Tuesday was like “watching a bad horror movie”—Bernanke said the government had little choice but to “defang” AIG so it doesn’t take down the entire banking system. I guess that makes AIG a “vampire”?
With all the taxpayer infusions, it sure seems like the federal government is “trying to breathe life into a corpse,” said the Peoria, Ill., Journal Star in an editorial. After $180 billion, at some point shouldn’t taxpayers cut their losses and let AIG die? And if it’s other companies, not just AIG, being propped up, “don’t taxpayers have a right to know whom else they’re bailing out?”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How global conflicts are reshaping flight pathsUnder the Radar Airlines are having to take longer and convoluted routes to avoid conflict zones
-
Zohran Mamdani: the young progressive likely to be New York City's next mayorIn The Spotlight The policies and experience that led to his meteoric rise
-
The best film reboots of all timeThe Week Recommends Creativity and imagination are often required to breathe fresh life into old material
