Description

The awarding of $165 million in bonuses to AIG executives has dominated the news in the last week. There has been widespread outrage over the idea that taxpayers’ dollars are being used to reward the people who effectively bankrupted AIG and cost the government more than $160 billion in bailout funds to meet the company’s obligations. This primer addresses some of the issues raised by both the bonuses and the much larger sum going toward the AIG bailout.