Americans are mad. Mad that bonuses of any kind were paid to workers in failed companies out of government bail-out funds. And mad that $33.6 million of those bonuses went to AIG employees who have since left those jobs and moved on.

Americans are also mad that bonuses went to any of the AIG execs who worked in the unit responsible for creating the crazy derivatives at the heart of the financial crisis. AND they're ESPECIALLY MAD TO DISCOVER THAT $1 million each WENT to most of those employees.

Failed workers rewarded, it just makes people mad. It doesn't happen to waged workers. And they're lucky to get severance packages at all.  

But if you think it's crazy to reward those who got us into this mess, you'd be mad to get hung up only on AIG. Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers—as David Harvey pointed out on this show a little while ago--from their perches in the Clinton Administration, could and should have seen the storm coming. Did they say anything? Did they do anything? Well, yes, they made it easier for banks and investment companies to buy and sell debt and derivatives in order to make ever more profit.

Hearing Geithner and Summers feign indignation at the AIG executives' bonuses is a bit like listening to Jim Cramer claim that he never talked up Bear Stearns.