With casual talk of trillions of dollars being needed to resolveour many economic debacles, AIG losing $61.7 billion in 2008'sfourth quarter doesn't sound so awful...That is, until you put thatrecord-breaking number into context.

The Associated Press offered real-world comparisons to help usget our heads around the incredible depth of red ink in which AIGis swimming, noting that with $62 billion, you could:

o Pay the salaries of every player of every Major LeagueBaseball team in 2008--about 23 times!

o Cover the entire cost of U.S. government rescue and reliefefforts after Hurricane Katrina!

o Give every American $200!

You're not impressed? Try this AP scenario on for size: Youwould have to spend $1 million per day, every day, for the next 169years to spend as much money as AIG lost during the fourthquarter!

While I supported AIG's federal bailout when it was first putinto effect, I warned it might become a bottomless pit. If UncleSam is in for a penny, he has to be in for unlimited billions,right?

It looks like my worst nightmare is becoming reality. Who knowshow much AIG will eventually need to remain viable while trying tosell enough assets to pay off its government loans during the worstcredit crunch and economic downturn since The Great Depression?

"Restructuring will take time and possibly further governmentsupport, if markets do not stabilize and improve," the TreasuryDepartment and Federal Reserve Board calmly warned in a jointstatement.

Everybody is furious with AIG.

David Sampson, president of the Property Casualty InsurersAssociation of America, complained about the unfair competitiveedge AIG gets with open-ended taxpayer support. How can you competewith a firm whose sugar daddy literally can print money?!?

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke fulminatesthat "nothing has made me more angry" than AIG "exploit[ing] a hugegap in the regulatory system" with credit default swaps that ruinedthe company and threatened to destroy the global economy.

The icing on the cake is the lawsuit filed by AIG's formerkingpin, Maurice Greenberg, who is suing his old company forruining his stock holdings with excessive speculation in riskyderivatives and then failing to disclose the resultingexposures--all taking place after he left, of course, in the wakeof an accounting scandal.

Estimating his personal loss at $2 billion, he told CNBC, "I washurt very badly." Weren't we all!

In his lawsuit, Mr. Greenberg quotes Joseph Cassano, former headof AIG's Financial Products division, about the credit default swapportfolio. "It is hard for us...without being flippant, to even seea scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see uslosing $1 in any of these transactions." Talk about famous lastwords!

So where do we go from here? Do we cut AIG off and tell themtaxpayers are not going to throw more good money after bad? That'sunlikely, given the fear that pulling the rug out from under AIGmay leave us all flat on our backs.

Even the outraged Mr. Bernanke meekly admits federal officials"really had no choice" but to save AIG last September--andbeyond--to protect millions of policyholders and thousands ofderivates and credit-insurance counterparties while preventing aneconomic apocalypse. So expect the Treasury's printing press to runday and night to keep up.

Isn't anyone concerned about a repeat of the Weimar Republicdown the road?