Mar 17, 2009 1:43pm
AIG Bonuses For Employees Who Already Left?
EmailHere’s a little nugget. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has sent off a letter to a House Committee laying out what they are doing to get more information from AIG about the bonuses. In the letter Cuomo says that 11 of those at AIG who received ‘retention’ bonuses of more than $1 million are no longer working at AIG. Wiki Answers defines a retention bonus as "an incentive paid to a key employee to retain them through a critical business cycle." Guess not.
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Ask Se. Dodd what he thinks – he got $103,000.00 from them for his politcal coffers.
Posted by: jamescbuilder | March 17, 2009, 1:54 pm 1:54 pm
No more money for AIG under any circumstances. Greed and mis-management got them where they are and to reward them by giving more money is a no-no. NO a thousand times No!
Posted by: pamala garoutte | March 17, 2009, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
Good. Congress will tax the AIG bonuses back to American taxpayers. But keep the pressure up. Cuomo, Congress, Obama should keep up this kind of heat and investigatory pressure on all of corporate America, especially the bailout beneficiaries. There’s lots more heinous greed and corruption in corporate America. Don’t stop here. It’s time for those who plundered America during the Bush/Cheney “watch” to pay us back what they stole.
Posted by: hopesprings52 | March 17, 2009, 2:12 pm 2:12 pm
I do hope that everyone upset about the mess the corporate giants have left American in do realize that your Boston Tea Party should be aimed at the Republican fatcats who controlled Wall Street with the approval of the Bush/Cheney administration for the past 8 years – and not the new administration that inherited this debacle.
Posted by: geecee | March 17, 2009, 2:28 pm 2:28 pm
The democrats (and some republicans) who pushed for this bailout failed to perform due diligence before they handed over the money to AIG and others.
Obama is now saying that they ‘didn’t know’ about the bonuses. Well, why not?
They didn’t do their homework, that’s why.
Now, everybody’s up in arms.
The democrats were screaming their heads off when the republicans wanted more information before the money was handed out.
Who’s sorry now?
Well, we all are (democrats and republicans alike)
There’s plenty of blame to go around.
It’s not all one, and none of the other.
It’s both sides of that aisle in Congress.
If you can’t or won’t admit to that, then the root of the problem will never be solved.
We, the American people, need to be more in touch with what goes on around us. Then we need to speak up.
Posted by: enough | March 17, 2009, 2:50 pm 2:50 pm
Hey,
why is Obama upset, Dodd added restrictions for this to the “Stimulator” bill, which were MORE than Obama wanted. Part of that was the provision for them to do this with bonus contracts that were in place before 2/11/09.
THIS IS THE REASON WHY OBAMA MUST SLOW DOWN AND FOCUS ON THE REAL ISSUE FOR NOW.
The banking system needs Geithner’s Plan & Treasury NEEDS to be fully staffed.
Posted by: Mike_C | March 17, 2009, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
Nationalize those failed organizations, President Obama! It’s much less costly to nationalize them than to monitor them.
Posted by: teddymaniac | March 17, 2009, 3:01 pm 3:01 pm
We need to save some of our outrage for this other Obama special — his desire to make our veterans pay (through their insurance companies) fortheir service-related injuries.
What the heck? And as hotair.com points out, in 2008 Obama gave a big speech about “no more red tape; allow all vets into the VA system.” He was at a podium with the words “A sacred trust” written on them. That was in reference to what we owe our veterans, mind you.
And what’s particularly galling (though the whole thing is) is that Obama met with the American Legion president yesterday about this plan on — I believe — the same day he marked VA milestones.
What an incredible, INCREDIBLE hypocrite.
Posted by: Beth | March 17, 2009, 3:09 pm 3:09 pm
So much for the “retention awards” retaining anything other than the arrogance and ignorance that got us here in the first place.
Somebody tell me why these guys still have a job?
Posted by: Darryl the Contractor | March 17, 2009, 3:21 pm 3:21 pm
Aren’t insurance companies known for their penchant for denying claims and putting the burden on the claimant to prove they deserve payment? AIG’s claim that the incentive contracts could not be broken should fall on completely deaf ears. They could have easily denied the claims under the contract and required the employees to prove they deserve payment. Besides, I have never seen an incentive contract worth its salt that did not have a force majeure clause or a clause relative to the financial health of the payor. Any first year attorney could have documented several reasons for not paying an incentive payment to these AIG employees.
Posted by: Kim | March 17, 2009, 4:45 pm 4:45 pm
I’ve said it before – I’ll say it again. YOU CANNOT REWARD BAD BEHAVIOR AND EXPECT POSITIVE RESULTS! We have all talked about it – it makes no sense. Our grandchildren will burdened because our leaders played politics instead of putting the needs of our country first. If these people who are receiving bonuses were so talented, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. Why reward them so they can keep on lining their pockets at the expense of our children?
Have you noticed that China and Korea have become more aggressive since all this has come to light? How can we go to China with our hand held out begging to borrow money and expect them to respect us as a country?
I sent the following message to all the elected officials who represent my district in Washington DC. Feel free to send it to your elected officials.
How can you expect any foreign government to respect the US when our President and congress hand over billions and billions of dollars to unscrupulous corporate officials who stand behind their glass doors with smirks on their faces as millions and millions are handed out to the same corporate leaders who got us into this financial mess? Why should any foreign country respect us when the US government has allowed a few untrustworthy corporate leaders to out-smart them and then just simply say there’s nothing they can do about it?
You don’t have the option of just joining the chorus of voices protesting – you are the choir DIRECTOR and need to DO something about it!
If the action is simply to say we won’t give them any more money – NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Something has to be done now. We elected you to represent us. Stand up to them and say “NO YOU DON’T!”
Posted by: Linda | March 17, 2009, 4:55 pm 4:55 pm
Well said Linda.
Kinda like repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result!
Now what do they call that again?????????
Posted by: Darryl the Contractor | March 17, 2009, 5:09 pm 5:09 pm
-sigh- Lets all make a story about AIG paying out $165 million in bonuses to incompetent executives and make not mention of the fact that nearly $100 BILLION in taxpayer money was paid out through AIG to banks both in the US and around the world. The fact that AIG made public the counter parties receiving this money was not mentioned once on your broadcasts but a significant amount of time is dedicated to the “outrage” over 00.1% of the federal dollars loaned to AIG. I know it is easier to stoke outrage but clearly the bigger story relating to the bailout of AIG was missed.
Posted by: Steve | March 17, 2009, 6:21 pm 6:21 pm
Spin all you want to, but if you have no job, no money, no food for your children, no home to live in, it IS a big deal that the government gives taxpayer money to pay outrageous bonuses to undeserving corporate leaders. Those millions of dollars could have gone to feed hungry children.
The AIG bonus payout was “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. None of the bailouts should have ever occurred. The concept that AIG, or any company, is too big to fail is based on what facts? Nobody really knows what would have happened. Could it be that people would have no jobs to go to, the value of our property would plummet, millions would be without health care, our citizens would live in downward spiral fearful that we are unable to provide for our children and our most venerable, foreign countries would ridicule us? – Oh, wait a moment – that is where we are now.
And nobody really knows what is going to happen if we keep feeding their gluttonous appetite – obviously our leaders handing over the money didn’t expect the recipients to continue their lavish spending! Bankruptcy of large failing companies would not only protect the companies, but it would protect the American taxpayer from the companies since we are expected to foot the bills.
Posted by: Linda | March 17, 2009, 7:25 pm 7:25 pm
“The foul odor of Washington.”
This whole mess has become a debacle that stinks to high heaven, permeating the very nostrils of God Almighty. It is so bad, you could stick a pipe in the ground at the Capitol and light the so called green gas billowing to the surface. International greed has taken over the country, our top businessmen once noted for their moral bravery have turned into a pack of common thieves. Our watchdogs in Congress – who once watched over the affairs of the nation are the biggest offenders. I have said this until I was blue in the face,we need to end the tempting practice of lobbying our lawmakers in Congress. We don’t reward people who steal from the people. There is only one party in Washington, and that’s the people. when it comes to the crooks who rob us, “Don’t bail em’, Jail em” George E. Buttner
Posted by: George E. Buttner | March 17, 2009, 10:25 pm 10:25 pm