Bad business

It is time for LARGE business to fail in this country. If the free market cannot survive on its own then they MUST be ALLOWED to go under, otherwise we have the simple that we currently have which is a government regulated and propped up economy. I believe it was Charlton Heston, while playing Moses who said "Let my people go" It is time for our public servants to say "Let these businesses fail" we'll pick up the pieces on the backside just as occured after 9/11/2001.
Why should companies be forced to get leaner through competition if government is going to prop them up if they cannot be competitive. The wages that they pay the top end of management needs to be brought under control as well since making a company look good on paper can be done quite easily, but we are now seeing the end result of something that started back in the mid 90's.

Lawmakers frustrated, sobered by AIG bailout

By ANDREW TAYLOR – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's bailout of insurance giant American International Group reminded some of the most powerful members of Congress how little power they sometimes have. The lawmakers didn't like the decision being sprung on them with no notice, but they're also happy not having the responsibility for it.

"Republicans in the Congress feel like we could have had and should have had more information sooner," Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the party's second in command in the House, said Wednesday.

Neither party was especially pleased with the action.

Many lawmakers, especially Democrats, weren't happy about the Fed's $85 billion loan to AIG in exchange for 80 percent of the insurer's stock, but they saw no alternative given the scary alternative of a financial meltdown.

"They had very little choice," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D. "The consequences of a failure to act could have been extraordinarily serious."

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Lehman Brothers was founded in 1850 by two cotton brokers in Montgomery, Ala. The firm moved to New York City after the Civil War and grew into one of Wall Street's investment giants, despite period brushes with death. On Sept. 14, 2008, the investment bank announced that it would file for liquidation after huge losses in the mortgage market and a loss of investor confidence crippled it and it was unable to find a buyer.

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