As this note “goes to press”, the federal government is preparing another $30B in aid to AIG. So far, $150B has been shoveled to it. Is this what “shovel ready” projects look like (& no we are not blaming democrats for this latest $30B)?

We searched for a ranking of countries based on GDP. We found that all but 33 countries have economies smaller than the size of the current ($180B) bailout of AIG.

Countries that are only slightly larger than the current size of the AIG bailout are:

  • Portugal
  • Argentina
  • Iran
  • Finland
 

Given that the global economy is contracting, we may now also be able to add:

  • Ireland
  • Greece