Keep on printin' them worthless dollars but at least A.I.G.'s Liddy is on the run

i wonder how many printing presses have burned out and had to be replaced at the mint...

The Federal Reserve yesterday escalated its massive campaign to stabilize the economy, saying it would flood the financial system with an additional $1.2 trillion.

The decision by the Fed to buy government bonds and mortgage-related securities is designed to lower borrowing costs for home mortgages and other types of loans, thereby stimulating economic activity. The central bank, effectively, will print more money to pay for the purchases.

Combined with the billions already deployed by the Fed, the new money dwarfs even the biggest government bailouts of financial companies.

Yesterday's announcement amounts to a recognition by Fed leaders that the economy has gotten much worse than they had forecast at their last policy-making meeting, in January. It also is their attempt to show market participants that, three months after cutting short-term interest rates to zero, they still have more tools to try to bolster the economy.

such frigging insanity...

at least aig's liddy was called on the carpet...

The chief executive of American International Group, trying to quell the wrath of the public and politicians over millions of dollars in bonuses, told Congress yesterday that he had just asked a few hundred employees of the beleaguered insurance company to give back at least half of the extra pay.

Edward M. Liddy, brought in last fall to lead the giant firm the government had just rescued from the brink of insolvency, arrived on Capitol Hill with an understanding of the outrage that has erupted over the bonuses -- but not complete acquiescence.

"We've heard the American people loudly and clearly these past few days," Liddy told an irate House subcommittee, saying that he found the bonuses "distasteful."

But he defended the rationale behind the payments, totaling $165 million to AIG's troubled Financial Products division, reiterating that they were intended to prevent the company from collapsing by deterring vital employees from leaving. He said that "some" of the Financial Products employees have returned their bonuses but did not specify how many. Asked by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to provide the names of those who have kept the money, Liddy balked, saying he feared for their safety in light of written threats, including one that said, "All the executives and their families should be executed with piano wire around their necks."

he may be on the run but i don't hear much of an acceptance of the reality of just how badly he and his ilk in the financial services and banking industries have been systematically fleecing their fellow citizens...

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