The Onion hit the nail on the head with its January 9 headline, “AIG nearly blows all the goodwill built up by Wall Street in recent years.” In reality, much of the financial sector, and especially rescued insurance giant AIG, has little to no cachet left with US consumers – and what it had, it nearly squandered.

Early last month, AIG considered joining a lawsuit filed by its former CEO over the terms of its 2008 bailout by the federal ...