I don't know enough to have any sense of whether this debt for equity swap is a bad deal for taxpayers or not. I think that unlike the Banksters, AIG actually had/has some moneymaking pieces which could be sold off, though whether there's any chance of getting a decent deal for taxpayers with the numbers they're talking about I have no idea.
...to be clear I don't think there's any chance this bailout is going to be a good deal for taxpayers, just talking about whether this new version of it is better or worse. AIG had real businesses, they just took the proceeds from them and threw them into Big Shitpile.
