Why exactly are American taxpayers bailing out foreign banks?
I added up the various lists provided by AIG by country (see below), and the results were quite revealing. About $44 billion went to counterparties headquartered in the U.S., such as Goldman Sachs and states such as California and Virginia.But as I expected, the majority of the funds—$58 billion—went to banks headquartered outside the U.S. The big winners were French and German banks, which pulled in $19 billion and $17 billion respectively.
To put these numbers in perspective, remember that the U.S. fiscal stimulus bill passed in February provided only $27.5 billion for highway and bridge construction.
Country AIG-related payments
billions of dollars
US 43.5
France 19.1
Germany 16.7
UK 12.7
Switzerland 5.4
Netherlands 2.3
Canada 1.1
Spain 0.3
Denmark 0.2
101.3
So me, my daughter, and my grandkids will be paying extra taxes to cover the losses of these foreign banks. Uh, why?
