homer simpson explains the financial crisis

AIG, known affectionately by those who care as American International Group, posted the largest quarterly loss, $62 billion, in history last Friday. If that seems like a lot of money, it is. Total AIG losses for the year were $100 billion. And how much money is that? $100 billion is larger than the gross domestic product of 70 percent of the world's countries. Seventy percent of them!

To prevent the collapse of AIG, the government infused them with another $30 billion today. That money is in addition to another $150 billion already given to AIG in the past year by the US government. According to experts, of which I am not one, we must help AIG lest the entire western way of banking collapses at our feet. Given the way things are happening, maybe it's time it did.

one of the experts?

So the government now owns 80 percent of the assets of AIG and we (read: the government) apparently don't know where the money went in the process because AIG isn't talking. And for those keeping score at home, 80 percent would seem to be sufficient to classify this transaction as 'nationalization'. Now if I only get myself to tell my other self, whether or not nationalizing this company was in my own best interest then I can be satisfied that I made the right decision. Until that happens, I'm placing my trust in Homer.