They claim that the potential AIG default had been hedged. So what? The AIG securities were hedges in the first place; apparently that doesn't eliminate counterparty risk! If the public had not stepped in, and GS was forced to call upon the next insufficiently-capitalized insurer in the chain, it is likely that party would also have proved insufficient. After enough layers of recursion, eventually GS would have been left holding a bag of some size, and its precious shareholders would have lost some of their money. And that would have been perfectly OK. You can't claim with a straight face that unemployment would be any higher today in that fairer, more just world.
If the Treasury Secretary wasn't a Goldman alumna, there's no way in hell that only the AIG securities held by GS would have been made whole in the way that they were. That is pure corruption, and the verdict of history will be very harsh.
[0] http://www.amazon.com/All-Devils-Are-Here-Financial/dp/15918...
The most troubling issue is that there hasn't been any significant adjustments since then. Perhaps not that surprising given the amount of influence the financial industry have in policy making, but still. It's also distressing to see an individual like Larry Summers being nominated as the next Fed Chairman. It seems very little has been learned.
For anyone interested in understanding the events that led to the crisis, I can't recommend highly enough: All the Devils Are Here[1]. Of the many books written on the subject, it provides a very objective and thorough account.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/All-Devils-Are-Here-Financial/dp/15918...
[1] http://www.amazon.com/All-Devils-Are-Here-Financial/dp/15918...
If you'd like to read about it, the best contemporaneous piece I've read on it is "All the Devils Are Here" - https://www.amazon.com/All-Devils-Are-Here-Financial/dp/1591...