So, AIG's worth saving.
Continuing the two-week long two-step of "will they or won't they?" the Fed switched gears (flip-flopped) and cut an $85 billion check to bail out the world's largest insurer yesterday.
'Course, it wasn't really their money, but that's never stopped the feds from waving the taxpayer checkbook around before.
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Don't get me wrong, this bailout had to happen. AIG's global reach and its policies insuring so many other crucial players in the economy made it a cornerstone of this increasingly fragile house. Let them fall, and the dominoes would have tumbled.
But at the same time, the idealist in me resents this string of bailouts a little bit. We're all taught early on that any form of investing carries with it varying degrees of risk. You gamble more for higher returns. If you lose, well, you lose. That's the nature of the beast.
AIG — among many, many others — gambled on this subprime mortgage mess. And they — among many, many others — lost. Tough, but that's the way it is. That what we tell individual investors, anyway.
Now, I know, there's a difference between the big corporate entities and small fries like you and I. Their impact on the economy is so much greater.
But then, shouldn't their sense of responsibility weigh a little more, too?
What do you think? Should AIG have been saved? Will the next carrier about to fall be rescued? Should they?
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