Day-ummmm! At first he said, why not take over some companies which would make us money--but, hey, if we have universal healthcare, it will make the entire economy work better--and that would allow a better economy for everyone. IMHO.

Let's start asking our Congress Critters to definitely take this new approach and apply where it will really, really do some good!

The insurance subsidiaries, as far as anyone can tell, are solvent and able to function.  The problem lies with a different subsidiary, AIG's financial products arm, which owns a lot of these crappy securities that are now valueless as a result of recent events.  In short, that subsidiary is in much the same boat as Lehman Brothers.

So I figured the solution is simple: let the financial products subsidiary declare bankruptcy, if it must, and all the insurance companies go on functioning normally since they're separate corporations.  Only it's not that simple.  Because the subsidiaries are all linked to each other through a common parent, and they all report using consolidated financial statements, the creditworthiness of the insurers is directly tied to the well-being of the overall corporate family.  In other words, the insurance subsidiaries don't take a direct hit to their balance sheet if the financial products subsidiary fails, but their creditworthiness takes a serious hit.  And depending on how extended those subsidiaries are credit-wise, some of them may be driven under simply because they can't obtain credit any more.

So by saving the financial products arm of AIG, the government also saves a large number of profitable insurance companies that would create a nightmare if they all went into receivership.  I still can't tell you if it's a good deal overall, although it's unambiguously good for your humble commentor since AIG is a major client.

To often the government takes a stand by saying bailouts are done, then three days later they change their stance again and do it anyway.  And I think the private sector knows it.  Right away they started floating out there that the private funding was not going to happen.  All a ploy I feel to try and get the Government to panic and reverse course.

Sorry I can't be more specific.  It's my gut talking.

Perhaps all this financial crisis will speed up the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Why?

Because, where is the money going to come from if they aren't going to raise taxes???  The treasury is already tapped out.  Trying to con the Chinese, Japanese and the Saudis into buying more US Treasury bonds ain't gonna do the trick.  This may also revise the need for regulation.  If you don't keep people's greed in check, it always goes wild.

Something's gotta give and this failure of a war is too expensive at this point.

So, perhaps, to save money and keep the taxes in the current place, the next president will have to pull out of the war.

The bankruptcy of Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers and the forced take over of Merrill Lynch are the latest demonstrations of the collapse of American capitalism. All the lies and propaganda about the supposed infallibility of the "free market" are now utterly discredited. The people of the US and the world are confronting a financial catastrophe on a scale not seen since the Great Depression.

What is revealed in this crisis is not merely the recklessness, incompetence and greed of America's financial elite, but the failure of capitalism--an economic and political system that subordinates the needs of society to profit and personal enrichment.

Who is going to pay for this crisis? Here the US corporate and political establishment agrees: working people must accept a drastic reduction in their living standards to bail out the Wall Street investors and banking executives who are responsible for this debacle.