[Rockingham]

I disagree. Many of the AIG bonus recipients knowingly participated in creating the specific risks that brought the company down. Even when an employee has a contract, malfeasance is a recognized basis on which to withhold or recover pay and bonuses.

The government's role in fostering systemic risk is no excuse for embracing that risk for the sake of personal and corporate profit. Welfare cheats should not be excused because the system is vulnerable to abuse, nor should looters be set free with their booty because the municipal power company had an outage due to poor maintenance and the city did not have enough police.

[Kansas58]

Wrong!

The risk was ALREADY THERE!

The RISK was in the bad mortgages, and the risk would have been there, whether or not AIG insured that risk.