Protectionist backlash spreads to AIG bail-out

When AIG released details over the weekend of how it used its US government bail-out funds, it might have been expected to receive a welcome reception and be applauded for its new found conversion to transparency. Instead, it met with opprobrium, heaped on it because many of the counterparties to whom it paid the funds turned out to be banks from, horror-of-horrors, Europe. The protectionist backlash to the bail-out appears to be getting stronger.