Wall Street: 20 Billion Dollar Bail-out for AIG

As the firm moved dangerously close to a credit rating downgrade, the Democrat directed a one-time lifting of state regulations, allowing the company to access as much as $20 billion from its own vast subsidiaries. It's not a taxpayer bailout and officials insist policy holders are protected.

The announcement jerked back AIG's plummeting stock price, although its close was about a fifteenth of its year-long high and it came shortly before the federal government asked two titan banks to arrange a loan for AIG of about $70 billion.

"AIG for a long time was the largest insurer in the united states by market value it has thousands of customers globally, it has a trillion dollars in assets, it's a massive, massive company and to the extent that AIG tumbles it will have a huge ripple effect across the entire economy,” said Dan Wilchins, Reuters Finance Team Editor-in-Charge.

And also on already struggling state finances. The New York-based firm employs 8,500 statewide.