"A.I.G. Bailout"

By now everyone is aware of insurance giant A.I.G imploding and requiring a Federal bailout of $85 billion. Folks, this is our money!

A.I.G. secures home mortgages based on the value of the home at the time of purchase. We all know that home values had been highly over inflated and the bubble has burst. As home values started to decline A.I.G. was forced to reduce the values of securities on the books. In other words, if 3 years ago the value of the securities was listed at $125 billion, today they are probably worth only $40 billion.

What A.I.G. did was make their stock prices look good trying to attract investors in order to bail themselves out of the predicament. This plan simply backfired.

Let's be honest. A.I.G. had to have known a long time ago that this problem was going to show its face. They also had to have known the risk involved in purposefully inflating their stock prices. Perhaps they figured if they couldn't bail themselves out, "Oh, well. The Feds will just come and save us anyway." The problem is their plan did fail. Today the Dow Jones Industrial fell another 300 points well below 11,000 - the lowest it's been since 9/11. Thanks to companies like A.I.G. people involved in the stock market are losing tens of thousands of dollars every day. People who were depending on their investments to fund their retirement are now forced to go back to work.

I've always had a strong faith in the American economy to be able to pull itself out of a hole. However, if these poor decisions keep happening whether by A.I.G. or any other multi-billion dollar organizations, the worst is still yet to come. I really hope that the other executives out there are watching and start to take into consideration the futures of the hundreds of millions of Americans dependant on the economy, rather than just their bottom lines.