COVERITLIVE.COM

10:06

John Marelius - Good morning all. Barack Obama makes his first visit to California as president this week with a town hall meeting in Costa Mesa tomorrow and another one in Los Angeles on Thursday. Obama is "outraged" by huge bonuses paid to AIG executives, but it's unclear what anybody can do about it. And March Madness is upon us. Go Bruins!

10:07

SignOnLiveChatModerator - John, what brings Obama to California?

10:08

John Marelius - It's just part of his nationwide road show promoting his economic plans. Also, he is scheduled to make an appearance on Jay Leno tomorrow night. That has become a command performance for presidential candidates, but it's the first time a sitting president has done it.

10:17

SignOnLiveChatModerator - John, it is understandable that after giving AIG billions, Americans would be upset to hear about the multimillion bonuses handed out by the company. What can be done about the bonuses?

10:20

John Marelius - A very good question. Obama is outraged that AIG executives have collected $165 million in bonuses at a time the huge insurance company is being bailed out by the taxpayers of the United States. Members of Congress from both parties are outraged at Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for allowing it to happen. But once you get beyond all of the chest-thumping and finger-pionting, it's not at all clear what, if anything, can be done about it. Even though the taxpayers now own nearly 80% of AIG, it's still a private company obligated to live up to contracts it has entered into.

10:23

SignOnLiveChatModerator - John, how much of a political liability do these bonuses become for the Obama administration as it tries to deal with the sagging economy? This isn't the first time since he entered office that the nation has become outraged over financial bonuses.

10:25

John Marelius - I think it's a real problem. There is broad public support for things like infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy. But bailing out huge financial institutions is quite another matter and a large segment of the population is not on board with that, even though most economists agree that stabilizing the financial system is the most important prerequisite for getting out of this recession.

10:27

SignOnLiveChatModerator - John, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke saying the recession would probably be over this year, how many more bailouts does the nation need? Are we coming to an end of being asked to provide billions to save the financial system?

10:29

John Marelius - Actually, Bernanke qualified his statement a little more than that, saying he expected we would probably begin coming out of the recession in 2009. But he's just one voice, albeit a very credible one. Some economists see the recession ending sooner. Others believe it won't happen for some time and that it will be a very sluggish recovery. As for how many more bailouts are needed, I'm not an economist, but most agree that whatever it takes to stabilize the credit markets needs to be done.

10:34

SignOnLiveChatModerator - John, the Obama administration has said it will no longer refer to prisoners as enemy combatants. If that is the case, what is the legal status of those already classified as enemy combatants? And, in the future will everyone captured on the battlefield, even non-regular fighters, be classified as if they were enemy soldiers and covered by the Geneva Conventions?

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