14 thoughts on “They Really Are Just Like Crack Addicts

  1. We can certainly see why they went broke. Some people never learn. I think this makes AIG the number one Welfare Queen.

  2. “We cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest talent to lead and staff the A.I.G. businesses — which are now being operated principally on behalf of American taxpayers — if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury”

    When the chairman believes that the people who caused the meltdown are the ones he most wants to retain, the root of the problem is pretty obvious: a clear failure to think.

    This should really put his job at risk, if the people who appointed him are thinking.

  3. RETAIN? Where the “F” are they going to go?
    I’ve been out of work for 4 months without even a whiff of a job. Go ahead! Leave!!! See what’s out there.
    There should be cells left open near Bernie for any of these rich creeps who gets even a penny for a bonus. And some left open for politicians who allow these guys to get a bonus for driving their (now OUR) company off a cliff.
    And they had better hope that it’ll be an “arbitrary adjustment” by Treasury, and not arbitrary vengeance by the people.
    I AM MAD!!!

  4. I wondered (until today) if there was anything that could get Americans on the street demonstrating again after Vietnam. THIS may be it. I am a 64 year old retired grandmother and I may picket AIG’s headquarters in Houston Monday. Anyone join me????

  5. AIG seems to be saying that the bonuses are contractual obligations that they can’t avoid. So apparently not being able to write a good loan and not being able to provide solid loan insurance aren’t their only sins. They also don’t know anything about contracting.

    I have a bonus plan as well. It distinctly requires that the company meet their revenue goals before there’s any payout, then it escalates with increased revenue performance over goals. Did AIG give these guys an unconditional bonus, no matter how well they “performed” in their job? Anybody who signed their name to that paper should be fired immediately.

  6. And AND these CEOs crab about class warfare and income tax rates. Forget about taking the rate back to before Bush! TAKE it back to before REAGAN!!! Then we might get a middle class back. Also, my picket sign will say, READ ‘INFINITE DEBT’ in Harper Mag. and repent!!!!!! YOU have destroyed my dream of a middle class life for my children and maybe my grandchildren.

  7. No more! They created the problem, they should NOT be rewarded. I agree with the above. Fire them all. We have plenty of very bright people out of work right now that would probably do a much better job.

    We, the taxpayers, do not owe these b******s anything.

  8. I’m sorry, what were you saying? I was distracted by all those shiny pretty things in the Vaka ad.

    But seriously. What would become of a small business that behaved this way? It’d be “Sayonara, sucker” in a couple of months, and all the neighbors would be saying, “They brought it on themselves.”

    So I’ll gaze into the bright surfaces of that beautiful, handforged artisan jewelry and make a psychic prediction: “I see a great ship… four smokestacks silhouetted on the horizon… the hull cracking wide open… sinking slowly and inevitably beneath the waves.”

  9. I hope to one day see these payments used as evidence in a trial for criminal conspiracy to defraud. At this point in the game, hiding behind claims of ‘contractual obligation’ to make these payments is not pathetic, but criminal.

    Are they seriously trying to convince me that there was no language in those contracts about standards of behavior or professionalism that they couldn’t use to stop these payments if they wanted? No kind of ‘moral turpitude’ clause that couldn’t at least tie the payments up in court for years? They allowed these guys access to billions and to expose the company on every deal without some means to control or cut them off? Get real.

    If the head of AIG really wanted, those scoundrels wouldn’t see a dime. So, if he pays them, doesn’t that make him at very least an accessory to the crime?

  10. One final point. This is the last grab of the greedy. They know that their payday’s will be a lot smaller in the future. So, this is the last act of the pirate’s before the anti-piracy laws go into effect. They want to pay off that condo, their kid’s college, and then fund their retirement fund’s. All while many are living in pup-tent’s in Bushvilles, can’t afford their kid’s lunch money, and have nothing to retire to since their 401k plan turned into a 40.1k plan, and no pension – nothing but SS to look forward to.
    AIG – Your company is now, in effect, bankrupt. In a bankruptcy court, bonuses are the absolute last thing that would be awarded.
    You say it’s owed you in your contract’s? WE OWN YOU! If you take a nickel from us, you should be prosecuted for fraud. You committed fraud to make your money, you’re committing fraud asking for bonuses for losing HUNDRED’S OF BILLIONS!
    Greyhound doesn’t routinely, as far as I know, give bonuses to drivers who drive buses off of cliff’s and killing dozen’s of people. You should not get bonuses for driving your company, the US economy, and the world economy off a cliff. You should be penalized. Heavily.
    The alternative, knowing that what you were doing was wrong, is PRISON!
    Don’t like either of those alternatives? Just show your face in my neck of the wood’s. You won’t have to worry about shit ever again….

  11. My Grandfather, on my father’s side, was a revolutionary in Russia in 1917.
    I told my parent’s today that I now understand him (BTW – he was executed in 1937).
    And I now better understand Lenin, and the American and French Revolutionary’s.
    They were fed up. To the gill’s. And so am I.
    Don’t tread on me!!!

    I’m sorry if I’m angry. But I really, REALLY AM!!!
    I’m sure I’ll be my usual humorous self tomorrow. :-:) – Forced smile…

  12. FWIW, a lot of AIG’s lines of business are normal, staid insurance businesses, run well. The gambling line of business(es?) was a relatively small number of people, the fault of that (those?) line of business(es?) and the top management. Some of those people should maybe do time. [Maybe a lot of time, like a few hundred thousand years.]

  13. In 1980’s Reagan used to tell anecdotes about women on welfare driving Cadillacs. It is now time to get the real message across: since 1980 “business too big to fail” has been driving the real welfare vehicle, the vehicle that gave it a free ride at our expense. this is the real “welfare” queen sucking at the collective teat. this is the consequence of all that “market” preaching.
    We knew when Paulsen started this that this was what it was, the final payoff for bad management before the roof caved in.

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