Less than a week after the federal government offered an $85 billion bailout to insurance giant AIG, the company held a week-long retreat for its executives at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., running up a tab of $440,000, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said today at the the opening of a House committee hearing about the near-failure of the insurance giant.

Showing a photograph of the resort, Waxman said the executives spent $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 for the spa.
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AIG Fights Back on $440,000 Resort Trip; Says No Corporate Executives Attended

The CEO of the giant AIG Insurance Company, Edward Liddy, today defended spending $440,000 on a retreat at a luxurious California resort as "standard practice in our industry" because it rewarded independent insurance agents who were top performers for the company.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, obtained by ABC News, Liddy said "not a single corporate executive from AIG headquarters attended." According to Liddy, only 10 of the 100 guests at the retreat worked for AIG.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who chaired yestersay's hearing on AIG, was not impressed with Liddy's letter to Secretary Paulson. Waxman told ABC News that, "It defies common sense to spend over $400,000 at an exclusive resort a week after the government bailed out AIG. It shows a reckless disregard for the shareholders, who are now the U.S. taxpayers."
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standard practice -- is that a justified response? how dangerous is unchecked capitalism?

what do i know about the economy except that somewhere inside my chest i feel a tiny mob of proletariats rising in revolt and waving their tiny little fists