Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street Highlight

In that respect, Geithner’s opening of the spigot of taxpayer cash for AIG was more of a bailout of the banks than it was for AIG itself. The government thereby sent Wall Street a very dangerous message: counterparties who do business with financial institutions whose collapse could have devastating consequences for the entire financial system needn’t do due diligence or worry about their counterparty risk. Instead, they can rely on the government to bail them out.