insured?

AIG staggers and collapses and we the American taxpayers are in for $85 billion in loans.  That's $280 from every one of us.

Let's hope it works.  But Robert Samuelson makes a good point about how much the ongoing problems - Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG - are traceable to deregulation of the financial sector.  He didn't name names, but a big culprit was the 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act, the triumph and joy of Republican Senator and economics professor Phil Gramm.  If McCain is elected, please don't let Gramm near Treasury.