Why was the U.S. taxpayer forced to bailout AIG?

_______: Why was the U.S. taxpayer forced to bailout AIG?
Why was the U.S. taxpayer forced to bail this company exactly??

NEW YORK (Reuters) – American International Group Inc (AIG.N) reported a quarterly loss of $ 8.9 billion, hurt by loss reserves and efforts to repay the U.S. government, as it struggles to find its feet more than a year after its $ 182.3 billion rescue.

AIG’s general insurance unit, Chartis, and domestic life insurance and retirement services, SunAmerica Financial Group, showed improvement. But the market remained skeptical, and AIG shares fell 7.9 percent to $ 25.33 in Friday midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

“It could have been a better result,” said Bill Bergman, a senior analyst at Morningstar. “We have seen improvement in housing finance and credit markets in ways that AIG might have benefited to a greater extent than what we saw today.”
sadcat…………That would be the same “too big to fail” doctrine the Obama WH still supports??
middle……….I hadn’t seen that (the Addendum at least). Thanks for the link.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Sadcat
“Too big to fail”–that was the theory of the Bush administration at the time Henry Paulson went to Congress to beg them to bail out AIG.

Answer by Incarcerated Bert
Henry Paulson said the world would collapse.

Answer by O’Ryan
Just more cronyism that isn’t limited to bailouts. How about legislation that forces people to purchase this or that?

Answer by middleclassman
More money just needed to be dumped into our central banking fractional reserve debt based system to keep the bubble deflating rather then popping.

Answer by thorcorn
The current administration is promoting a religion through AIG and our tax monies.

“Breaking News: AIG Sharia Case Must Go Forward
Specifically, at the time of the government bailout (September – December 2008), AIG was (and still is) the world leader in promoting Shariah-compliant insurance products. Shariah is Islamic law, and it is the identical legal doctrine that demands capital punishment for apostasy and blasphemy and provides the legal and political mandates for global jihad followed religiously by the world’s Muslim terrorists. By propping up AIG with taxpayer funds, the U.S. government is directly and indirectly promoting Islam and, more troubling, Shariah.”

Answer by bluelotussmellslikebananas
They should have had the same fate as Lehman Brothers. Fail. Now we are already in the hole for 183 billion and they’ve got their hand out for another 9 billion. It’s not going to end. They will beg for more in the next few quarters all the while still paying out their bonuses. Why do we keep rewarding failure? Geithner has been reappointed which means AIG has a friend at Treasury. Great. They are like addicts. We are enabling them. It’s time for tough love. It’s not that they are too big to fail now. It’s that we are in too deep for them to fail now. Disgusting.

Answer by Butch S
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