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After initially resisting to come to the rescue, and unsuccessfully persuading some of the largest (private) banks in the country to pony up a bridge loan or two, the U.S. government seized control of American International Group, the insurance giant commonly known as AIG, on the evening of September 17, 2008, just past 7:30 p.m. &lt;p&gt;The deal is a monumental one, putting a private insurance firm into the hands of the government and thus placing U.S. taxpayer dollars on the hook (I don&amp;#8217;t know about you, but I didn&amp;#8217;t want to go into the insurance business). The deal sends $85 billion to AIG in the form of a federal loan and hands the U.S. government an approximate 80 percent stake in the insurance company. The deal also sent AIG CEO Robert Willumstad packing (but not empty-handed; he&amp;#8217;ll likely pull down an $9 million exit package). Willumstad will be succeeded by Edward Liddy, the former head of fellow insurance giant Allstate&amp;nbsp;(who will now answer to Uncle Sam, AIG&#39;s new chairman of the board). &lt;p&gt;The deal followed closely behind the U.S. government deciding not to bailout crumbling investment bank Lehman Brothers, resulting in Lehman filing Chapter 11 (before finding a beige, if not white knight in Barclays, which picked up a good chunk of Lehman yesterday, keeping about 10,000 Lehman-ites employed, for the time being at least). But the Feds decided yesterday that the markets,&amp;nbsp;despite being&amp;nbsp;able to deal with a Lehman bankruptcy, could not handle an AIG one (some say its collapse would have resulted in $180 billion in losses&amp;nbsp;across the financial industry; it would have also likely resulted in a massive amount of job losses, not just at AIG but at many other firms certain to be affect in the fallout). Though this would&#39;ve likely been the case, the bailout set a precarious precedent, which is already being hotly debated across the country, including by the two remaining U.S. presidential candidates. &lt;p&gt;Where do you stand? Should the U.S. have stepped and saved AIG in or not? &lt;p&gt;As always, we welcome your comments and thoughts below.&lt;/p&gt;

Derek Loosvelt

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