Geithner draws fire defending Fed on AIG bailout

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/ap_on_bi_ge/us_aig_probe

Democrats and Republicans alike pummeled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday over his role in the $180 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG Inc., venting public anger over Wall Street's return to prosperity while unemployment stands at 10 percent.

Geithner, one of the original architects of the government's 2008 response to the financial crisis as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, defended the use of taxpayer money as necessary to head off "potentially catastrophic damage to the economy."

But members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hammered away at why regulators allowed American International Group to pass on billions of the bailout money to big Wall Street banks that were business partners.

"In effect, the taxpayers were propping up the hollow shells of AIG by stuffing it with money. And the rest of Wall Street came by and looted the corpse," committee chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., told Geithner.



AIG Bailout, Geithner Blasted Hard on Capitol Hill

All the denials made some lawmakers scratch their heads in disbelief.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/geithner-paulson-head-hill-defend-aig-bailout/story?id=9669321

Some call on Geithner to step down at testy hearing on AIG bailout role
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/78285-some-call-on-geithner-to-step-down-at-testy-hearing