Hi all-

Thursday morning of AM's Road to Rescue special coverage brought answers to some of your biggest questions. First off, thanks to some great digging by our congressional correspondent Dana Bash we got some answers about just who in Congress and the Obama Adminstration was involved in legislation that ended up allowing the AIG bonuses. Check out her reporting on the issue here.

Also we started the morning with the news that the Federal Reserve bought up a trillion dollars worth of mortgage backed securities.  One effect of that: lowered mortgage interest rates for you.  Our personal finance editor Gerri Willis took your questions on the news.

Christine and I have quick little discussions in the breaks about all of the hot topics we are covering. We talked about whether all of the populist outrage over AIG is taking away from the larger issue of where our trillions of tax-payer dollars have gone and are continuing to go through the bailouts and other attempts to stabilize the economy. We are digging more into that Friday morning. Hope to see you then!

Cheers,

Kiran

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/03/18/nypost.292.320.jpg caption="NYPost.com"]

Hello Everyone.

Gotta love the subtlety of today's New York Post Headline. NOT SO FAST YOU GREEDY BASTARDS it blared this morning regarding AIG bonuses. Perhaps harsh, but the sentiment certainly in line with what many of our American Morning viewers had to say about AIG and the bank bailouts.

You guys again weighed in in record numbers on our show hotline 1-877-MYAMFIX, our blog cnn.com/amfix and Twitter about AIG and the bank bailouts.

But it wasn't only AIG that had people fired up.

The other big question we tried to answer for our viewers this morning - "Was our government also asleep at the switch in this situation?"

I questioned Congressman Barney Frank and John did the same with Senator Charles Grassley about Congress's role in approving bailout money without strings attached in terms of limiting bonuses and compensation for companies who would go belly up without our tax dollars. Watch if you missed it.

But it wasn't all gloomy on the economic front. As part of our special Road to Rescue coverage we also featured people finding creative ways to help themselves survive job losses and other setbacks.

We spoke with two former college roommates who created thecanned.com as a site to help themselves and others navigate the ins and outs of unemployment and job interviewing.

And we also spoke with Mark Heuer, who used his savings to rent a billboard with his face and email address. He said it led to several promising job offers.

In these tough times it's nice to know that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. hopefully we can all draw a little inspiration from these stories.

Cheers!

Kiran

Ryan Mac and Jill Schlesinger spar over AIG 'bonuses'.

Good Morning and Happy St. Patrick's Day,

So our first day here on AM making it easier for you guys to give us feedback - we have our new toll-free phone line 877-MY-AM-FIX, our Facebook page and our Twitter accounts... and boy, did we get an earful!

More than 4000 calls to our hotline, hundreds more people following our tweets on Twitter. We are really trying to make it worth your while by taking your feedback, putting it on the air and answering your questions.

The biggest talker this morning without a doubt is still the AIG bonus outrage.

Things even got heated between our two guests Ryan Mack, President, Optimum Capital Management/Investment Advisor and Jill Schlesinger, Exec VP & Chief Investment Officer of Strategic Point Investment Advisors/Financial Advisor who had very different takes on the issue. Check it out here

A lot of our guests and viewers asked "Why does there seem to be a double standard for AIG?". Other industries and companies were forced to re-negotiate contracts in the face of this financial crisis. Workers were forced to take less money or forego a raise in an effort to keep their company afloat.

The other big question– why didn't the White House or Congress attach more strings before freeing up this bailout (taxpayer) money?

A lot to chew over this morning. But as always we'll keep you posted on what we find out. In the meantime, keep your comments coming.

Cheers,

Kiran