Here's the first headline I saw: A.I.G. to Pay $100 Million in Bonuses After Huge Bailout
Okay, that made me sick. Then this morning I read this article:
Lawrence Summers, Director of the White House National Economic Council, said on CBS' Face The Nation this morning that recent bonuses paid out by insurance giant American International Group are "outrageous."
Reports came out this morning that AIG, which has received $170 billion from the U.S. government to prevent the firm from collapsing, has paid out $165 million in bonuses.
"It is outrageous," Summers told host Bob Schieffer. "The whole situation at AIG is outrageous. What taxpayers are being forced to do is outrageous."
But Summers also said that "you can't govern out of anger" and that the government doesn’t have the power to stop bonuses from being paid out under existing contracts.
"If we simply throw up our hands, refuse to deal with any of this, we'll have the kind of financial catastrophe that we saw after what happened at Lehman Brothers," Summers said. "[Treasury] Secretary Geithner has negotiated very forcefully with AIG. He has done everything that is legally permissible for the government to do to limit the payment of bonuses. But where there are contracts, binding contracts that were entered into long before the government put any money in to AIG -- we're not a country where contracts just get abrogated willy-nilly."
Summers added: "And if we were to start doing that, there would be potentially very destabilizing consequences."
What a bunch of crap. Excuse my language, but please, don't patronize me, Mr. Summers, with your complete and utter hogwash. What AIG is doing is utterly contemptible and what you, Mr. Summers, are saying is little better. Corporations abrogate contracts with their employees all the time. It happens every day in America. Now is the time for upper level management--or should I say in this case--mis-management to feel what it's like to have their contracts abrogated.
But simply eliminating the bonuses is not really enough. If only there were a way to put this soulless scum in prison...
Sunday, March 15, 2009
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2 comments:
AIG = Allowing Irreversible Greed.
AIG = All in Greed.
AIG = Arn't I Greedy.
AIG = A$#holes, in general.
This is sick. Why in the world are we helping these companies that keep sending millions to people who do not know how to run a company? They cry yet get paid millions on the "average joes" taxes. Furthermore, I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg. Look what Enterprise rent-a-car did to get bailout funds:
http://www.butasforme.com/2009/02/25/alert-enterprise-rent-a-car-may-have-fired-employees-as-fake-evidence-when-lobbing-for-bailout-money/
Not to make excuses for these people, but the bailouts are making crooks out of everyone that touches the money.
The bonus payout excesses at AIG are just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening with the other Wall Street bailouts including Bank of America. Working productive Americans are bailing out the same crooks that destroyed our economy along with 45% of the wealth in the world and now the American taxpayers and our children will be forced to live a far lower standard of living with reduced prosperity and opportunities due to this but only we pay the price.
Washington has bailed out the banks, Wall Street & their Washington special interests and much of the cost is added to the national debt to by paid by this and future generations while real estate and investments continue to fall. Find out what a growing repudiate the debt movement could mean for treasuries, the dollar, gold and the stock market and how this is a better alternative than Washington’s plans to monetize the debt in future years and tax and destroy our remaining wealth by depreciating the dollar.
The Campaign to Cancel the Washington National Debt By 12/21/2012 Constitutional Amendment is starting now in the U.S. See: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67594690498&ref=ts
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