Facing increasing public outcry, the Obama administration pledged Monday to try to block the bailed-out insurance giant AIG from paying out as much as $450 million in bonuses to top executives and other workers. AIG is attempting to hand out the bonuses despite the company’s central role in the meltdown of the global economy. AIG has already received $173 billion in government bailouts. During the last quarter of 2008, AIG lost a record $62 billion — that amounts to over $460,000 per minute. On Sunday, Lawrence Summers, one of the President’s top economic advisers, said the government cannot just abrogate contracts, but yesterday President Barack Obama asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to pursue every legal avenue to block the bonuses.

President Obama: “This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed. Under these circumstances, it’s hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”