March, 06, 2010

Over the last 10 years we’ve seen vast amounts of our national wealth become concentrated in the pockets of the wealthiest Americans, recently including the captains of finance whose quest for short-term financial gain nearly brought us another Great Depression. In a perverse take on “trickle-down” economic doctrine, the Wall Street bailout engineered by the Bush economic team now has the look of a “bonus bailout” for rich executives. The message was clear: You’ll be rewarded even when you fail.

The worst case involved American International Group, a firm that insured the mortgage securities at the center of the meltdown. In the waning days of the Bush administration, it was decided AIG was “too big to fail.” We spent $120 billion paying off AIG’s creditors, including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and many foreign banks. In an insult to taxpayers, we learned recently that Goldman Sachs will be doling out $16 billion in bonuses this year.

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