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Analysis: Obama’s ‘blame me’ means ‘move on’

President Obama topped a town hall appearance Wednesday by claiming responsibility for the bonuses paid out to executives at the bailed-out insurance giant American International Group, saying, "I’m outraged, too." Cushioned by high approval ratings, analysts said Obama can emerge from this controversy relatively unscathed, but there’s only so many times he can get away with saying, “Blame me.” AIG accepted more than $170 billion in federal assistance in the past six months. It was revealed this week that since accepting those funds, the company doled out more than $165 million in bonuses.

Obama blasts AIG bonuses, admits ‘buck stops with me’

President Obama said Wednesday that no one in his administration had been responsible for supervising ailing insurance giant AIG but that ultimately, the buck stops with him. “Nobody here drafted those contracts; nobody here was responsible for supervising AIG and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in,” he said outside the White House. “[But] we are responsible, though.

Geithner: AIG must pay back bonus money

Insurance giant AIG will have to return to the Treasury Department the $165 million it just paid out in executive bonuses, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday in a letter to congressional leaders. “We will impose on AIG a contractual commitment to pay the treasury from the operations of the company the amount of the retention awards just paid,” Geithner wrote

Officials: Two Israeli police officers killed

Police searched Sunday for gunmen who opened fire on an Israeli police vehicle in the West Bank, killing two officers, according to Israeli police. AIG, a recipient of at least $170 billion in federal bailout money , got an $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve. The list released Sunday of “counterparties” that benefited from the bailout is topped by European banks Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank, which received $4.1 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively.

Tim Geithner He’s Hiring! And His Critics Hope It’s Soon

After a one-year, 50% drop in the stock market, and the fastest, deepest spate of job losses since 1974, Americans have a lot of data to support their sense that the country’s economic house is crumbling. The last thing they want to hear is that the man charged with the reclamation project doesn’t have a crew ready to start work. So when news broke late last week that two top nominees for the Treasury department were withdrawing their names from consideration for undisclosed personal reasons, what ordinarily might have been dismissed as a harmless staffing snafu became the latest cause for unease among those watching Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Former RBS boss’ hefty pension stirs outrage

The embattled former RBS boss Fred Goodwin might want to consider leaving Britain until the media storm and outrage over his estimated £650,000-a-year ($933,000) pension has settled; it may have to be a very long break.

Obama’s Address: A Road Map Without GPS

President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress may be one of the best political speeches of the last few decades. It will certainly be remembered for its cadence, passion, and a degree of astute articulation which has been missing from the national debate recently. What the speech did lay out is a road map for getting the economy back in shape and then keeping it expanding.

How Stressed Is Your Bank?

For months, customers and investors have wondered if their banks will survive. The government may soon give its opinion

Will Beijing Respond to Clinton’s Wish List?

North Korea has a long history of communicating with the United States through provocation and brinksmanship, and it has played to type ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s four-nation trip to Asia that began Sunday. In recent weeks, Pyongyang has annulled its maritime border with South Korea, renounced the nonaggression agreement between the two countries, and moved missiles and equipment around in ways that could signal preparations for a launch, according to U.S. officials.

Bankruptcy For General Motors, Chrysler?

— Call it a bankruptcy in disguise. Although General Motors and Chrysler are scrambling to pull together plans by Tuesday showing that it makes sense for the government to support them without invoking the dreaded “B-word,” the efforts look like a classic case of reorganization