AIG Lost Billions At End Of 2009

American International Group says it lost about 9 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of last year, and that's better than it did in previous quarters. To compare, AIG lost 62 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2008 so there is an improvement. But AIG says repaying billions of dollars in bailout money to the federal government is difficult. Does that mean the giant insurer might ask Uncle Sam for more help? Not so fast, says White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

"Obviously an extraordinary amount of assistance was rendered in 2008 to prevent the giant collapse of AIG," Gibbs said.

NPR's Jim Zarroli explains why AIG has done better, despite the huge losses: