the buzz log

Once upon a time, in a land called Wall Street, a bunch of firms received a biiiiig bailout from Uncle Sam and his little taxpayers. Of the firms, one was an insurance conglomerate called American International Group, with a very naughty financial products unit. Sad AIG had lots and lots of assets to unload, so it couldn't pay Uncle Sam back so fast.

The other was an investment bank named Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs magically turned into a bank holding company, repaid most of the money, and ended up having its best quarter ever.

But both want to give out nice juicy bonuses, and that made Uncle Sam and his little taxpayers see red. How the numbers stack up in this tale of two bailouts, below:

$180 billion
AIG taxpayer bail-out received.

$165 million
AIG March bonuses, part of a $454 million pool paid out for 2008 work. Out of 73 employees who received $1 million to $6.4 million, 11 left the company, including the top bonus-getter.

$273.5 million
Retention bonuses AIG wants to pay in the upcoming weeks.

$10.4 billion
TARP funds repaid June 17 by Goldman Sachs, which borrowed the money in fall 2008. Returning the funds freed the holding company from government restrictions.

$4.7 billion
First-quarter bonuses and compensation that Goldman Sachs paid, out of what Rolling Stone calls "highly suspicious $1.8 billion profit" that included a $12.9 billion payback from AIG, which received funds from taxpayers.

$770,000
Average amount that each of Goldman Sachs' 29,400 employees could receive this year in bonuses—twice the salary of President Barack Obama. 

$1.09 trillion
U.S. budget deficit.

9.5%
U.S. unemployment rate as of June, which represents 4.4 million people unable to find a job in the past six months.

$42,270
Average U.S. salary as of May 2008, the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.