AIG is now asking for the fourth time for more $$$ from the
FED and the treasury. I know this is not news, but the
following is just too much.

"What happens to AIG has the
potential to trigger a cascading
set of further failures which
cannot be stopped except by
extraordinary means," said the
presentation by New York- based
AIG. "Insurance is the oxygen of
the free enterprise system.
Without the promise of protection
against life's adversities, the
fundamentals of capitalism are
undermined."

Does this include self inflected wounds ? Just asking...

Regulators revised AIG's bailout
last week to ease loan terms and
extend $30 billion in fresh
capital after the firm posted a
$61.7 billion fourth-quarter
loss, the worst in U.S. corporate
history. Lawmakers are reluctant
to give more support beyond the
package already in place, worth
about $160 billion, because they
say regulators haven't given
enough detail about how the funds
are being used or when the
bailouts will end.

The Fed is "asking for an
open-ended check" and is "not
going to get" it, Senator Robert
Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat,
said last week in Congressional
hearings.

I have a feeling that is is going to come to an end pretty shortly.
Congress's constituents on both sides of the aisle are not going
to stand for this much longer and the pressure will build, if it has
not already done so, to just let the whole thing collapse.

C