Jay Leno unleashed a righteous rant against AIG last night. “It turns out they gave $35 billion — not million, $35 billion — of our money to bail out European banks,” he raged. “See, this is how a global economy works. Our hard-earned tax dollars are used to bail out German banks for making bad investments in American companies that shut down because the Japanese owners moved the whole thing to India, China, and Mexico.”
Is it true? The last part isn’t. The crash is a function of housing prices, not corporate outsourcing. But it’s definitely true that the bailout money is bleeding over the border. Annie Lowrey breaks down the data. Here’s where your dollars went:
I’m actually surprised by how much left the United States. Surely some went overseas, but more than half? And why so much to Spain? It’s weird. And it has the likely to be as much a political problem as the bonuses.
