During testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, executives from Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase promised not to use bailout funds "to pay their executives and employees," according to the AP. These four institutions account for $75 billion of the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program. AIG received $40 billion from TARP on Monday--just after it was revealed the company went forward with a $343,000 conference in Phoenix. AIG claims......

AIG, the insurance company that was saved by an $85 billion federal bailout, will cooperate with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's review of its finances. Additionally, the company will not make a $10 million severance payment to its outgoing CFO and it is canceling future junkets and perks, like its "Best Operator" conference in Las Vegas (cost: $750,000) and a Risk Management Conference at a Ritz Carlton (cost $500,000). The NY Times reported that Cuomo explained,......

Today, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo held a press conference on Wall Street, announcing his investigation of AIG's expenditures since 2007. You can read the letter he sent them here (PDF), but he does call their spending "unwarranted and outrageous" and asks the Board of Directors "to cease and desist any such further expenditures, and review, rescind, and recover all past unreasonable expenditures." Plus, Cuomo says, "The Board must also immediately institute new protections to......

You'd think that after AIG was bailed out to the tune of $85 billion by the feds, executives would be morally chastened to watch their spending. But no: During today's testimony to the House Oversight Committee, the NY Times reports that a week after the bailout, "executives at its life insurance subsidiary, AIG General, held a weeklong retreat at the exclusive St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. Expenses for the week, lawmakers were told,......

Last night, the federal government gave insurer AIG a new lease on life with an $85 billion loan--in exchange for a 79.9% stake in the company. The NY Times reports, "The decision, only two weeks after the Treasury took over the federally chartered mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank’s history." As the Wall Street Journal noted, the Fed decided not......

CNBC reports "Under pressure from New York Governor David Paterson and AIG policyholders, the Federal Reserve is considering reversing its decision on Monday and providing some kind of financial aid to the troubled insurer." However, if there's no financing deal, the company could file for bankruptcy tomorrow. The Wall Street Journal has a Q&A about AIG, explaining why the company is in crisis and what the effects might be.......

After the Dow Jones industrial average fell 504 points--the most since September 17, 2001--yesterday upon news of Lehman Brothers's bankruptcy, the sale of Merrill Lynch, and A.I.G.'s troubles, Wall Street is in for another difficult day. Asian stock markets were down sharply: Tokyo's Nikkei was down 5%, Seoul's Kospi was down 6.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 5.9%. The Wall Street Journal reported, "Steps unveiled by the Federal Reserve to expand its emergency......

The financial industry's worst weekend ended on these notes: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, after being unable to find a buyer; Bank of America, previously interested in Lehman Brothers (but didn't want to buy it with government protection) decided to buy Merrill Lynch for $50 billion; and it's worried AIG and Washington Mutual will fall next. The financial markets are expected to be in tumultuous territory, and a banking analyst told USA Today, "We are in a hysteria."...