Main Street has a new cheer to chant: Way to go, Cuomo!

New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo announced that Edward Liddy, chief executive of A.I.G., has agreed to freeze all of the $19 million in compensation it owes its former chief Martin Sullivan. Liddy has also agreed to make no payments out of A.I.G.'s $600 million bonus pool for employees of the firm's financial-products group.

"To be clear, it is my position that until the taxpayers are repaid with interest, the more than $120 billion that has been used in the rescue financing of A.I.G., no funds should be paid out of these pools to any executives," Cuomo wrote in a letter to Liddy. "As A.I.G. recovers using taxpayer money, these pools should not be used to reward executives ahead of taxpayers."

However, the letter did not explicitly say that Liddy had agreed to freeze payments until the taxpayers had been repaid.

Cuomo's letter also said that Joseph Cassano, the former head of the financial-products group that was responsible for the problems that led A.I.G. into the arms of the federal government, was due to receive $69 million of the $600 million bonus pool. Cassano stepped down in March, but he had continued to receive $1 million per month in consulting fees until the government took over A.I.G.

Already, Liddy had agreed to cancel all junkets and perks that weren't justified by its business. The firm came under scrutiny after it was revealed that A.I.G. paid $500,000 for a junket less than a week after the federal bailout.

Earlier this month, Cuomo launched an investigation into A.I.G.'s expenditures and compensation arrangements.

It's unclear if Sullivan would be legally entitled to the $19 million under his contract or whether he would even try to go after it in court.

The news is good for taxpayers, but it's almost hard to believe it took measures by Cuomo to get Liddy to step up to it. Liddy was appointed head of A.I.G. after the government took control of it in September. To continue paying out $600 million in bonuses to the group that was responsible for A.I.G.'s fate seems almost preposterous.

The news comes the same day that Representative Barney Frank called for a moratorium on all Wall Street bonuses. "They have a negative incentive effect because they are the ones that say if you take a risk and it pays off you get a big bonus,'' he said, according to Bloomberg. And if it causes losses "you don't lose anything.''

It's hard to imagine a Wall Street without bonuses. Then again, until recently, it was hard to imagine a Wall Street without Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch.