AIG and the Nazis

Wok said:

It was asked several times who or where the money went to, be it regular employees, top executives or whatnot. The problem could have easily been avoided if the company declared bankruptcy.

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JohnnySavage said:

That's probably what should have happened.

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Slowlane said:

I don't know enough about it have a fit. If the bonuses were part of a contract then they need to be paid. I assume they are going to those who made the company money and may be a percentage of some sort.

I've heard Obummer whining about them but I've heard nothing of any attempt to find out the rational behind them. A typical knee-jerk reaction.

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CaptainKirk said:

I'm hoping that's the case. If these individuals actually helped the company rather than hinder it, then yes; they deserve to be rewarded.

I want someone to find out where all this money is going. After all that's happened, the American people have been given nothing but corporate double-talk and government "lawyer-ese" by the very people that put us into this financial hole in the first place. They don't trust corporations anymore, hence the "knee-jerk" response. After what's happened, can you honestly blame them for reacting this way?

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miles said:

Where is the outrage over how much money the government pisses away through corruption, fraud, and entitlements? $165,000,000 is small potatotes by comparison.

Just another smokescreen from the Fuhrer.

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Ishmael said:

What a stink? AIG is/was paying out $165 million in bonuses and you'd of thought they were eating babies if you listened to the polilticos.

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Ishmael said:

Hard telling right now. The younger generation has been so thoroughly indoctrinated by the government schools that they don't know whether they're coming or going. If you ask them about their Social Security they, as a class, express absolutely no expectations of ever seeing a penny. But when various proposals are made to change that, they rebel against the change and for the status quo with speed of light knee jerks. They don't trust the government on the one hand, but want the government of take control of their lives on the other. Indeed, in the form of socialized medicine they're willing to put their very lives in the hands of the government. They remind me of a herd of pigs with a corn field on one side and a trough full of corn on the other. They mill around in the middle and starve to death out of indecision.

Right now Facisim looks like it has the upper hand. At least from the standpoint of the economy. Throw in some of the social aspects of socialism/communism and you have the current mix. Not all that surprising in that both doctrines sprang from the same philosophy.

AIG now has a government appointed CEO. And I'm sure that that seems only fitting considering the money that's been thrown at them. And one of the reasons that Obama praised the CEO while raising hell about the bonuses. It HAS to be obvious to the most casual observer that AIG is now a hostage to political gamesmenship. Does anyone think that GM and Chrysler are going to be handled differently? Does anyone truly believe that 'cap-n-trade' isn't going to be the prequel to a move on the power industry?

Me? I'd like to see a convocation of a Constitutional convention. But the states are 4 states short of that happening. As long as the populous democrat controled states are hanging off the federal teat there's little chance of that changing.

Ishmael

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vetteman said:

Additionally, those bonuses are only one tenth of one percent of the money loaned to AIG, what about the money they paid to foreign banks. The Dems are going to try and violate the Constitution to get the bonuses back. Those bonuses were contracted before the bailout, they will be paid.

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Wok said:

It was asked several times who or where the money went to, be it regular employees, top executives or whatnot. The problem could have easily been avoided if the company declared bankruptcy.

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CaptainKirk said:

I'm hoping that's the case. If these individuals actually helped the company rather than hinder it, then yes; they deserve to be rewarded.

I want someone to find out where all this money is going. After all that's happened, the American people have been given nothing but corporate double-talk and government "lawyer-ese" by the very people that put us into this financial hole in the first place. They don't trust corporations anymore, hence the "knee-jerk" response. After what's happened, can you honestly blame them for reacting this way?

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Ishmael said:

Unless you get rid of every member of congress, and the senate, next election, you'll never know.

Ishmael

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miles said:

Where is the outrage over how much money the government pisses away through corruption, fraud, and entitlements? $165,000,000 is small potatotes by comparison.

Just another smokescreen from the Fuhrer.

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Lancecastor said:

I usually joke around about your topics, but as I was saying back in October when this stuff started to appear on the horizon...the USA will almost certainly wind up functioning more like a Social Democracy than a Republic in the next few years.

Yes, from your perspective, that'll look like facism and communism...but then again, we actually have a Communist Party in Canada, so that stuff doesn't irk me like it does you.

As I was saying earlier...just imagine if all Americans actually could see what's going on the way you do...they'd be in the streets like Africans, shooting the shit out of everything.

So yeah...maybe you're right....if the more conservative elements in the USA could raise the issues without being so polar about it, it'd be a great debate to have a Constitutional Conference....we have them here all the time in Canada.

But it's more likely that it'll just be bitter partisan bitching until Obama gets the One Term Jimmy Carter Treatment...I guess that's what's on the table right now, isn't it?

Who gets to be Ronnie Reagan?

Arnold??

It'll have to be someone charismatic, right?

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garbage can said:

From what I understand, the bonuses are going to the AIG division that created the mess.

And here's the biggest joke.... They give the bonuses to reward and keep the talent. These slimy cocksuckers achieved their positions through incompetants. Peters principle at it's finest.

Ish, I say fuck 'em with a pineapple.

Throw the cocksuckers out.... give them nothin'

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garbage can said:

From what I understand, the bonuses are going to the AIG division that created the mess.

And here's the biggest joke.... They give the bonuses to reward and keep the talent. These slimy cocksuckers achieved their positions through incompetants. Peters principle at it's finest.

Ish, I say fuck 'em with a pineapple.

Throw the cocksuckers out.... give them nothin'

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Ishmael said:

Unless you get rid of every member of congress, and the senate, next election, you'll never know.

Ishmael

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Slowlane said:

The position their in as legislators should put them beyond a knee-jerk. So, yes, I do blame them. It's their job to get the facts and react accordingly. Unfortunately they think their job is to vie for votes and blame the other party.

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Ishmael said:

Guess what? It doesn't matter in the end. A contract is a contract. Breaking this one will break the Constitution. Do you feel so strongly that you want to do that?

Ishmael

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Meanwhile, if the buzz on the blogosphere is a measure of anything -- and I think it is -- then a new consensus is forming out there about where to start doing things differently. Unfortunately after less than two months in office, President Obama finds himself awkwardly behind-the-curve on this. It begins with the understanding that a general bank rescue is hopeless and, going a step further, that the people who caused the train wreck of "innovative" securities have to be prosecuted. The public's collective voice on this is muted but growing. It has been muted by the general air of blackmail that the banks have used to enthrall policy and opinion -- the "too big to fail" idea -- in effect holding the nation's future for ransom.

Last week, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo hauled Bank of America chief Ken Lewis into his office to explain who, exactly, received an aggregate several billion dollars in bonuses late in 2008 after the US Treasury forked over billions of dollars in TARP money to his bank. That was a good start. Mr. Lewis, being lawyered-up to the max, had the temerity to reply that answering the question would compromise his ability to keep talented people in his employ. For that impertinence alone, Mr. Lewis ought to be dragged over fifteen miles of broken chardonnay bottles behind a GMC Yukon -- but that is not how we do things in American jurisprudence. To be more realistic, a simple indictment would be in order, and then Mr. Lewis can answer this question, and a few others, in the comfort of an air-conditioned courtroom. Ultimately, that might lead to Mr. Lewis becoming the wife of a bodybuilder in one of New York State's houses of correction -- a just outcome that would go far in rejiggering the nation's expectations about how people in authority ought to behave. And such an outcome might lead to the conviction of many other brides-to-be from the Wall Street debutante pool.

Now it has come to light, just last week in the wake of AIG's latest bail-out, that previous AIG bail-out money to the tune of $50 billion was distributed to a set of banks including Goldman Sachs (former employer of then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and then New York Federal Reserve Governor Tim Geithner), plus Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Mr. Lewis's Bank of America, and a long list of European banks with operations in the USA. Since the transactions took place in New York State, the investigation of these irregularities alone could solve the unemployment problem here if NY Attorney General Cuomo were given a free hand in hiring staff to depose everyone involved -- including the hiring of caterers to bring in coffee and meals for round-the-clock proceedings.

All of this raises another awkward question: where is United States Attorney General Eric Holder in this situation? Surely the federal statutes offer some grounds for inquiring about the misuse of Treasury funds -- and many other issues arising from Wall Street's stupendous orgy of misbehavior. What I'm hearing out in the blogosphere is a growing clamor to call people to account before we are really able to move on to the massive task-list that awaits us in rebuilding our economy.

The bigger question for now is whether any of these authorities will act effectively before the public simply goes apeshit and starts burning down Greenwich, Connecticut. The dangerous shift in public mood is liable to occur with shocking swiftness, in the manner of "phase change," where one moment you see a bewildered bunch of flabby clown-citizens vacuously enraptured by "American Idol," and the next moment they are transformed into a vicious mob hoisting flaming brands to the window treatments of a hedge funder's McMansion. The moment of opportunity for avoiding that outcome is looking sickeningly slim right now.

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Ishmael said:

Guess what? It doesn't matter in the end. A contract is a contract. Breaking this one will break the Constitution. Do you feel so strongly that you want to do that?

Ishmael

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off2bed said:

Does this story make the left feel better?

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Slowlane said:

It makes me want to vomit.

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