The zodiacal sign Pisces is symbolized by two fish swimming in opposite directions. This is an appropriate description of the government’s actions regarding American International Group (AIG).

The politicians have got the media focused on a fish swimming in “a tidal wave of rage,”* stoked by the President and members of Congress over retention bonuses paid to AIG employees. At this rapid rate it won’t be long until the waters turned toxic from hatred kill the fish’s food supply. Meanwhile the other fish is frantically trying to swim as fast as it can in the opposite direction, pushing hard to escape from the political cesspool so it can regain its strength to free itself from the government’s 79.9% ownership.

Pisces and its planetary ruler Neptune describe things that are not what they seem, making it difficult to penetrate through the veil of illusion. A simple story is devised to distract the public’s attention from a tangled web of lies, deceit, and incompetence.

According to the Administration, the origins of the anger and outrage over $165 million in retention bonuses paid to employees in AIG’s financial products unit began on the March 10 Full Moon after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York sent a list of payments to the Treasury Department due to be paid by March 15. These retention bonuses had been publicly disclosed by AIG in an SEC filing on May 8, 2008. In a March 14 letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner, AIG’s government-appointed CEO Edward Liddy explained that AIG and its legal counsel came to the “distasteful” conclusion that the best outcome for AIG was to pay the employees under contract for successful completion of winding down their part of the $1.6 trillion remaining in the unit’s esoteric derivatives book.

Mars moved into Pisces shortly before midnight on March14, increasing the anger and aggressiveness government officials and members of Congress were ready to unleash over the bonus payments. At a lower level of expression, Pisces and Neptune energy is about suffering and sacrifice, and with Mars in Pisces, someone or something usually ends up becoming the collective scapegoat. With the Moon (emotions) in secretive Scorpio** the weekend of March14-15, Liddy had already had enough of the government’s sideshow. With his Mercury conjoining the USA’s natal Pluto, Liddy revealed the information Fed Chairman Bernanke and other government officials claimed was private. AIG’s press release shows the government funneled over $50 billion through AIG to domestic and foreign banks to make these counterparty CDS holders whole on the value of their underlying CDOs. The largest recipient was Goldman Sachs (GS) at approximately $13 billion, followed by Societe Generale, Deutsche Bank (DB), and Barclays Bank (BCS).

As a way of deflecting the government’s secret actions and to extract revenge on AIG, Administration officials and certain members of Congress were determined to vent their outrage. Political hypocrisy and hysteria reached epic proportions with the Moon in Sagittarius Monday through Wednesday. Senator Grassley said AIG’s top managers should "resign or commit suicide" (a Pisces/Neptune act).