Ah yes, the financial foibles of financial firms remains on my blogging radar this afternoon, as I have found another article about questionable spending by American International Group (AIG: sentiment, chart, options) and Citibank (part of Citigroup (C: sentiment, chart, options) ). As many of you know, I am a rabid sports fan - spending a majority of my non-family free time watching everything from football to basketball to hockey to rugby (hey, I used to play, cut me some slack). Knowing this, one of the first things I thought of when I heard that AIG was getting some government support was how it would impact Manchester United. You see, AIG dishes out $125 million to emblazon its symbol on ManU's unis. With the company borrowing $150 billion from the government, is this the best way to spend $125 million? The advertising obviously hasn't helped. I remember when AIG was first helped by the government, I joked that ManU would have to wear FED on its jerseys.

Which leads me to Citi Field ... yes, the new home of the New York Mets is called Citi Field, because C dished out $400 million to slap its name on the front of the new stadium. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this the same Citi that my tax dollars are helping bail out? I want my name somewhere on that stadium ... perhaps a beer stand, it would be a fitting tribute. This type of spending prompted Elijah Cummings (D-MD) to note that this "type of spending is indefensible and unacceptable to Citigroup's new partner and largest investor: the American taxpayer." (thanks to this article by Amanda Terkel for the Cummings quote.)