The Wall Street Story

Bigger and swifter finger from the markets...
S.&P. 500 closed at 996.23, 60.66 (–5.74%) down
Dow (DJIA) closed at 9,447.11, 508.39 (–5.11%) down
Nasdaq closed at 1,754.88, 108.08 (–5.80%) down.

Sweet tidbits from today’s congressional hearings according to the story in The New York Times: a week after the Fed pumped 85 billion dollars into A.I.G., the good, compassionate managers of that outfit spent $442,000 on a weeklong retreat at the exclusive St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California, including $23,000 in spa charges (!), and the former executive Joseph J. Cassano, who seems to be largely responsible for driving A.I.G. into the ground, continues to receive $1 million a month (he received over $280 million in various “compensations” in eight years.)