Time to Forget AIG and Nab Offshore Cash

Agency pulls in $2.7 billion

(NEWSER) - Tax evaders are rushing to the IRS, cash in hand, thanks to a partial amnesty program aimed at recovering money in offshore bank accounts. In all 12,000 tax cheats came forward, the agency announced yesterday, bringing in a total of $2.7 billion. “The results we’re seeing today were unthinkable just a few short years ago,” IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman tells Bloomberg , chalking it up to stepped-up enforcement efforts. More»

US will eventually no longer own the company

(AP) - AIG said today it's reached a deal to repay billions of dollars it received during the credit crisis. The plan could return a profit to taxpayers who footed the bill for AIG's near collapse in September 2008 and will eventually remove the government as majority owner. AIG became a lightning rod for criticism over bailouts when it received a package worth as much as $180 billion from the government, which received an 80% stake in the company in return. More»

President talks tough, pledges to get 'every single dime' back

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama made with the tough talk today in announcing his proposal for a tax on big banks, pledging to recover “every single dime” the taxpayers spent bailing out Wall Street. “We want our money back, and we’re going to get it,” Obama declared. “If these companies are in good enough shape to afford massive bonuses, they surely are in good enough shape to afford to pay back every penny to taxpayers.” More»

Big finance could face populist pitchforks

(NEWSER) - Bailed-out Wall Street execs handing themselves hefty bonuses this month should prepare for outrage not only from Dems inside the Beltway but from tea partiers, who hold their first convention in Nashville next month. The rage that has been focused on big government and health care reform could easily swing toward Wall Street, Gerald Seib writes in the Wall Street Journal . More»

It's been a bumper year for BS from the big banks, writes Nomi Prins

(NEWSER) - As Wall Street happily trots off into 2009's sunset, same old bad habits in tow, things aren't looking so hot on Main Street—no matter the crocks the bankers sold us, writes Nomi Prins at AlterNet . Here's some of Wall Street's finest whoppers of the year.

• The economy has improved. "Sure—if you work at Goldman Sachs or had an affair with Tiger Woods," writes Prins. For the rest of us, unemployment is in double digits and next year is looking bleak.