Jesse A. Schroeder

This recent article points out that even the President and a government that owns 80% of the company cannot control or make demands that will keep AIG honest. The concluding paragraphs:

"But like Obama, Bernanke and the rest of the political elite, who lined up Monday to share their outrage, are rather powerless to act. If AIG fails, almost all experts agree, the damage to the entire financial system would be horrific. So the leadership has little to do but posture. "Unconscionable," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "Outrageous," said her Republican counterpart, John Boehner. Sen. Chris Dodd, the chair of the banking committee that failed to regulate AIG, called on the executives to "voluntarily" forgo their bonuses. The best the government looks able to do is insist on some tough new pay restrictions going forward before giving AIG its next installment of $30 billion.

...

But even as he described the problem, Obama offered little hope of exacting justice for past violations of the social compact. Instead, he asked the country to look forward, to an era of new regulations that will prevent a repeat of these failures. And he repeated again the outrage that most Americans now feel, with a little levity to lighten the mood. "I'm choked up with anger," he said, to cover for his coughs. It was a fleeting laugh for a nation steaming with fury"

What is wrong with our country that these corporations can ignore the President, the Congress, the Federal financial systems, and the majority of the American population? Simply because they spun a web too difficult for anyone else to unravel, they now can throw a party safe from any retribution?

Somehow, the American public has to break free from these giant corporations that control our lives. They tell us we need insurance, and then lose our money, and then tell use we have to bail them out. Something isn't right here......