Here’s an item that should at least provide fodder to Zero Hedge and Matt Taibbi. The Wall Street Journal calculates that Wall Street firms stand to collect about $1 billion in fees from the Fed and AIG for services they provide in restructuring the company.

Wall Street banks and lawyers could collect nearly $1 billion in fees from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and American International Group Inc. to help manage and break apart the insurer, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

That would represent one of Wall Street’s biggest paydays — four times the fees paid to break up AT&T Corp. in 1996, and nearly double those paid for Visa USA’s 2008 initial public offering, the largest U.S. IPO ever.

The federal government’s bailout of AIG has left it with a nearly 80% ownership stake. The government has a multiyear plan to recoup the more than $100 billion in taxpayer money it put at risk in the rescue.

The plan requires hiring firms to handle public offerings of some AIG units and outright sales of others, to manage some toxic AIG assets, and for other tasks.

If it’s any comfort, the WSJ thinks Morgan Stanley rather than Goldman will be the big winner but then again we know how devious those Goldie guys are. There has certainly got to be a fix in somewhere. I’m sure Tyler and Matt will expose it soon enough.