Why's the angry crowd following a politician?

Congress is OUTRAGED that AIG gave huge bonuses to the financial products division that helped cause this mess. OUTRAGED! One congress-person suggested the people involved commit suicide! The politicians are outraged because the public is outraged. The public must feel a bit better to know that at least the politicians are outraged and seem committed to addressing this outrage. The media is OUTRAGED too and they're making more on advertising because you're so OUTRAGED you're spending more time watching everyone be OUTRAGED!

But wait! In a closed door session, the Senate EXPLICITLY REMOVED the provision that would have stopped these bonuses from taking place.

The measure, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), was removed by negotiators in a late-night, close door meeting. In the negotiations, senators agreed to limit executive compensation but decided to forgo barring excessive bonuses -- in fact, they specifically exempted it.

But wait! That's millions. What about the BILLIONS? The bonuses are only a fraction of the total money robbed from taxpayers.

Here’s the problem with all the hoopla over the $135 million in AIG bonuses: This sum is only less than 0.1% – one thousandth – of the $183 BILLION that the U.S. Treasury gave to AIG as a "pass-through" to its counterparties. This sum, over a thousand times the magnitude of the bonuses on which public attention is conveniently being focused by Wall Street promoters, did not stay with AIG. For over six months, the public media and Congressmen have been trying to find out just where this money DID go. Bloomberg brought a lawsuit to find out. Only to be met with a wall of silence.

Until finally, on Sunday night, March 15, the government finally released the details. They were indeed highly embarrassing. The largest recipient turned out to be just what earlier financial reporters had said was rumored: Mr. Paulson’s own firm, Goldman Sachs, headed the list. It was owed $13 billion in counterparty claims. So here’s the picture that’s emerging. Last September, Treasury Secretary Paulson, from Goldman Sachs, drew up a terse 3-page memo outlining his bailout proposal. The plan specified that whatever he and other Treasury officials did (thus including his subordinates, also from Goldman Sachs), could not be challenged legally or undone, much less prosecuted. This condition enraged Congress, which rejected the bailout in its first incarnation.

Is our outrage being channeled and contained? Politicians love crises. It allows them to do their thing -- talk and allocate money. What new program with this crisis create? How about a "Financial Company Accountability Program" that in reality further decreases transparency, increases bank bailouts as well as bonuses for the most greedy and destructive.  Transparency and oversight have received some lip service recently, but that's it. The public hears a politician TALK about transparency and oversight, gets excited and moves on to new issues, right? Politicians talk and allocate money.

These financial crises are going to be used as an excuse for more programs, I'm sure. We should be eliminating the Federal Reserve but instead will we see a more globalized Federal Reserve-type banking mechanism instead?

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Your Job:

Keep yelling, but don't let the angry crowd be misled by politicians seeking to channel your anger into even more problems.