Geithner: I Am Responsible for AIG Bonuses!

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday he takes responsibility for the controversy surrounding the payment of bonuses to American International Group employees. He repeated in an interview on CNN television that he first learned of the bonuses last Tuesday, March 10, and said that if fault was to be assigned for not knowing earlier, then it lay with him. "On Tuesday I was informed about the full scale and scope of these specific bonus problems," Geithner said. "You know, it's my responsibility, I was in a position where I didn't know about these sooner, I take full responsibility for that.”

Geithner has a brief history of taking responsibility, abeit a bit late, like his taxes for instance.

AIG should have been placed in bankruptcy last fall under some sort of government sponsorship. While in bankruptcy, all the salary contracts (and every other AIG contract) would have been nullified and voided. At the same time, there would have been an orderly liquidation and sale of AIG's assets and separate divisions.