The Inconvenient Truth About AIG — You Haven’t Seen Nothing Yet
EmailABC’s Tom Johnson from New York:
The anger over the AIG bonus mess is raw.
We asked you whether AIG, given these bonuses, should get another cent of taxpayer bail out money. You could practically hear the anger behind the posts. Here is one somewhat representative comment. And keep in mind it took some skimming to find one without an expletive.
"Absolutely not!!!! Fire all of those incompetent idiots and give Main Street a bailout…"
So would now be a good time to raise an inconvenient truth?
The Obama administration will soon have the sober task of convincing Americans that when it comes to bailing out troubled institutions like AIG and the big banks, we’ve got a lot more to do.
The administration and leading economists believe that in order to turn things around some banks will need more. To get the economy moving again, to get lending flowing for you, me, small businesses, on and on, the banks need more taxpayer help.
Team Obama will soon announce the details of their plan for the banks. It will involve using the remaining $250 billion in that TARP fund set up by Congress to rescue the banks. The money is a loan not a gift. And there is expectation that the loans will be recovered…some day. But no matter how you slice it, the price tag is going to rise.
When you consider the hundreds of billions dollars that have already gone out to these ailing institutions, the AIG bonuses are a drop in the bucket. But judging from the mood, the bonuses will likely prove to be a big blow when it comes time to convince the American public that the banks need more help.
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they get bailouts and we get loans. What a joke!
Posted by: notafan | March 18, 2009, 12:57 pm 12:57 pm
How do we know now if the banks have not learned that they will get billions from Uncle Tax Payer every time they cry they are closing the doors.
Posted by: prince | March 18, 2009, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm
Of course, journalists could help by explaining all this TWO DAYS AGO instead of cheerleading for the mob. But what would be profit in that, right?
Posted by: Lawrence J. Kramer | March 18, 2009, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
The American public isn’t stupid. If the next round of funding is to clean up after allowing the banks to go bankrupt – the exact thing the FDIC does all the time on a smaller scale – the support will be there.
The outrage over AIG just shows that the public DOES want “nationalization”: Let the banks go bankrupt, fire the CEOs, clean up the books, take the losses, and sell the healthy remainder back into the private market – just like the FDIC has done dozens of time with no fanfare on a small scale. People no longer have patience for the foolish approach of lending massive quantities of money with no strings.
Posted by: jhw539 | March 18, 2009, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
notafan:”they get bailouts and we get loans. What a joke!”
Yes, that is a joke – seeing as how “they” are getting loans. That’s what the ‘bailout’ IS. Bumpersticker slogans are more meaningful when you know enough about what they are saying to avoid becoming a joke.
Posted by: jhw539 | March 18, 2009, 1:06 pm 1:06 pm
I agree, not a penny more! Let AIG fail now, and all the speculators in derivatives, let all the BAD, incompetent banks fail now! The good ones will get bigger, the bad ones will be history. That is the rule in a free business economy. Any aid from here on should be only from Geintner and Obama’s paycheck! We don’t want government owned, government ruled socialist economy!
Posted by: Gyula Bognar, Jr. | March 18, 2009, 1:22 pm 1:22 pm
Who would have ever thought we’d be giving OUR OWN institutions money in the proportions of FOREIGN AID???
Posted by: Grantham West | March 18, 2009, 1:23 pm 1:23 pm
jhw, thanks for your reply. I now see how silly I sounded. Better to sound silly though then to sound deaf, dumb and blind. Thanks again
Posted by: notafan | March 18, 2009, 1:24 pm 1:24 pm
nomoreinsults:”Do you have such disrespect for anyone who doesn’t agree with you that you think nothing of insulting and belittling them? ”
I insult and belittle stupid comments, not the person. I am not a product of the “no such thing as a stupid question, precious snowflake” system; I believe that if you say something stupid you SHOULD feel foolish. Think! Sorry if that’s offensive, but if your opinion has a factual basis or logical support you won’t find me insulting it (although I may disagree). If you’re just shouting meaningless slogans – left or right, you are part of the problem.
Posted by: jhw539 | March 18, 2009, 1:33 pm 1:33 pm
If we bailout the auto industry, we save thousands of jobs. We bail the banks and we save the credit for many companies who need it to survive.
What we have are greedy people now drowning in their ocean of payback time.
They couldn’t handle what they had so we give them more? Gee guys, I just don’t think so……
Posted by: JT | March 18, 2009, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
With all of the ballyhoo, when will President Obama repay the $101,000+ he received last year as a ‘donation’ from AIG?? And while we are at it, when will Senator Chris Dodd repay the $103,000+ he received from AIG last year??
Do they really think that the average ‘joe’ is not watching??
Posted by: GrannyCares | March 18, 2009, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
The money being used by AIG to give bonuses to their top executives does not belong to them. The money is not theirs to give. It belongs to taxpayers and taxpayers should have a say as to whether they should be given bonuses or not. There is no money for bonuses.
Posted by: Tax Payer | March 18, 2009, 1:45 pm 1:45 pm
Obum’s “Stimulus Package” is Inadequate.
Posted by: Anon | March 18, 2009, 1:46 pm 1:46 pm
Tax Payer—-the money was for the bonuses. Dodd added a portion that allowed the paying of contractual bonuses dated before 2-1-09. It is theirs to give Dodd gave it to them.
Posted by: dsimms | March 18, 2009, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
dsimms:” It’s not there fault they didn’t read the stimulus package and know the bonus money was covered in the bill thanks to Dodd.”
I’ve never taken that position. I don’t really care about the bonus money – it’s under 0.1% of the loan to AIG. If we want to rage about bonuses at this insignificant level, then we should nationalize the banks. That’s what nationalization means – taking control of all aspects of the business, even the very small areas.
And I don’t work for Obama, although obviously I do support most of his policies (but I think his shying away from nationalization is put appeasement of Republicans over good policy).
Posted by: jhw539 | March 18, 2009, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
fool me once, shame on you
fool me twice, shame on me.
I can’t imagine what the politicians could possibly say to convince the public that we should continue to bailout the banks – not that they pay attention to us when they vote. No matter how many times they use the words “accountability” and “transparency”, it will be an incredibly hard sell to regain the public’s confidence after the bipartisan bungling of the last eight months. ABC news ran an article this morning about why there haven’t been large, widespread riots/protests in this country. If they try to cram another bailout down our throats, I predict citizens will take to the streets.
Posted by: phreddy111 | March 18, 2009, 1:56 pm 1:56 pm
What I don’t understand is why it is the US government (with OUR money) bailing out a multinational corporation whose LONDON office destroyed the world economy by selling to European and Asian banks and governments as well as U.S. entities. Seems to me this should, at least, be a joint bail-out by multiple governments of the world. Anyone? Anyone? EU?
Posted by: Ellamenta | March 18, 2009, 1:58 pm 1:58 pm
They have to keep convincing us to bail them out because of ALL THE MONEY THAT WAS CONTRIBUTED TO THEIR ELECTION CAMPAIGNS!! They don’t care if it’s our money that bails them out – if they did they would have cut out all the PORK from the stimulus bills and bailouts!! LET THEM ALL FAIL – No Compay is too big to FAIL – Give me a break!! Don’t insult my intelligence!
Posted by: JP | March 18, 2009, 2:03 pm 2:03 pm
Ellamenta:”What I don’t understand is why it is the US government (with OUR money) bailing out a multinational corporation whose LONDON office destroyed the world economy… Seems to me this should, at least, be a joint bail-out by multiple governments.”
Other governments are pursuing their own bailouts. Britian is pouring money in at about the same rate as the US. But at the end of the day, the US is the world leader and will shoulder more of the burden. We’re not the superpower just because we have a big ego, we’re the superpower because we step up and continuously prove right to the title.
Posted by: jhw539 | March 18, 2009, 2:06 pm 2:06 pm
Why has nobody in the news arena commented about this article. I know Mr. Spitzer may have lost some credibility in many quarters but…is there any truth to his article?
Posted by: RPM | March 18, 2009, 2:29 pm 2:29 pm
Anyone who is remotely involved with those bonuses should be fired and an investigation into how they can be charged criminally. At the very least those involved have been misleading and that is a crime with a SEC company.
Posted by: unshrub | March 18, 2009, 2:38 pm 2:38 pm
What makes any one think that Congress and the President give a damn about what we, the taxpayers want?
Did the listen about Iraq?
Did they listen about TARP and the first bailout?
Did they listen when we said no to the auto makers?
Did they listen about the second half of TARP?
Did they listen when they pork barreled the budget?
Did they listen on the STMULUS package?
Who believes that they are listening now or will when it comes up for another bailout? If you do do, you are just plain stupid!
Posted by: Ted Johnson | March 18, 2009, 3:40 pm 3:40 pm
It is amazing. The Federal Reserve (which is a private corporation) is completely and “Corruptly” looting our treasury. They need to see who is really getting all the “Bailout” money. Why bailout? Oh, that is because all the politicians want to do is just keep the old system running, which is what our founding fathers had fears of happening. The centralized banking system, truly is in control.
Posted by: G. Martin | March 18, 2009, 4:59 pm 4:59 pm
TO ALL THOSE WHOE WANTED CHANGE…
WELL… YOU GOT IT!!!
ARE YOU SATISFIED NOW?
Posted by: EL PINOY | March 19, 2009, 12:17 am 12:17 am
Granted no bonuses should have been given. That said,,,,,NO ONE is asking where the rest of the money went and it went to European Banks and no one is asking what THEY did with it. The bonus monies paid out were around one tenth of one per cent of the entire amount AIG got from the government. AIG IS BEING USED TO ___LAUNDER___THE__MONEY!!!
They’re “playing” us with the bonus focus. WHERE ARE THE __BIG__BUCKS???
Posted by: deborah | March 19, 2009, 5:19 am 5:19 am