Eric Massa has joined the chorus of those complaining about AIG bonuses. While I'm as angry as anyone about this, there are a few reasons to think that the ultimate result will be a lot of noise and not much action.
First, it looks like the derivative technicians at AIG made the delivery of their bonuses a condition of the derivative contracts themselves. Here's one explanation of how that works.
Second, the AIG derivative group is based in London. Taxing AIG trader bonuses at 100% sounds like a clever way to get around contractual obligations, but I wonder if those traders pay US taxes.
The final, and most important point is that the noise over bonuses obscures the real news about AIG: the release of their counterparties list. This is the group of institutions who AIG "insured" and who were paid billions when AIG's credit rating dropped. The list includes a number of foreign banks, and has huge ($12 bln) payments to Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. The AIG bailout was more than just the rescue of a big insurer -- it was also indirect bailout of a list of national and international financial institutions.