Summers: AIG Bonus Bombshell ‘Outrageous’

Take the bonuses away and let the “best and brightest” who drove AIG into the gutter, walk to their next job. What a joke!!! Afraid of getting sued?? Are you friggin kidding me? Are you telling me that AIG wrote employment contracts to executives that GUARANTEES bonuses in a time of the worst performance in history by any company anywhere? No wonder they are where they are. And that type of corporate behavior is from the “best and brightest”?

I want everyone on the internet to remember this whole AIG story the next time the government tries to sell us a GLOBAL WARMING, Green World… Absolute BS!!

All insurance is just a legalized, force-fed, giant scam on the populace. Insurance of any kind should be OUTLAWED. We’re being turned into indentured servants to the Corporations and Government by our own government.

I voted Democrat, but agree with Republicans abou AIG. These bonuses should not be going forward. This should have been in the agreement when AIG got their first money. There are many smart people who would give their eye-teeth to have these jobs for less pay. We all die, so the world and AiG can do without someone. So please rewrite or tell those people if they are not willing to lower their sights, they have to go. This has happened to many people in my community-told they had to go with no recouse.

Return the money AIG you just give out as a bonus!
Corporations like AIG don’t believe in shared American sacrifice but in quarterly profits. Yes the bonus AIG is giving out like candy is from the Tax payers but AIG knows it will take a hit for a week from the media and then the story will fade from the media.
Perhaps the bonus money AIG is giving out should be returned to Government and put to better use in fixing the economy.

If those are the “best and brightest” then AIG is doomed to fail. You do not deserve any kind of bonus if you are a part of the team that drove your company to point of needing billions of tax dollars in bailout money. Period. You deserve to be fired. It is just that simple.
No more bailout money for AIG. Let the “best and brightest” earn their bonuses by digging themselves out of the mess they got themselves into.

This is a catch 22 situation—letting AIG fail would have a greater affect on our financial system than the Lehman failure , which the govt now realizeS was a huge mistake .At least this administration is learning from the previous mIstakes and has a tIgar by the tail that they are trying to TAME. BE PATIENT

It’s all vile, full of corruption and rewards irresponsible financial decisions from reckless corporations to reckless individuals now to be ‘saved’ by a reckless government and all on the backs of responsible, productive people.

Liddy also wrote the government’s demands could affect AIG’s ability to retain “the best and brightest talent to lead and staff the AIG businesses”
I don’t buy that argument by Liddy. They failed and now they are being given a bonus?

Contrcts? You mean our Smartest Clueless Leader had no clue there are contrcts inbusiness even a commie like himself could not just tear it off if he does not come out of closet.
What is his promise to limit the executive pay to 250 grand? Is this another empty word done in the deep O?

I believe AIG said it needed the bailout money because the consequences of failure would cause serious damage to the economy, and also to help save jobs for all their thousands of employees, suppliers and the like. Well, I’m sure the average secretary at AIG supporting her children has had her hours cut, benefits rolled back, and counted herself blessed because her job wasn’t eliminated completely. What about all the small business suppliers to the AIG giant who undoubtably were pressured to take less for their goods and services (more likely told, “we’re in trouble, we’ve got to tighten our belts– so this is what we’re paying you.”). How do all these folks feel, who were probably told “we’re all in this together, this is what we have to do to keep the company going” when they see a few of the people who led them into this mess in the first place rewarded? Apparently, once one is considered a “master of the universe,” (thank you Tom Wolfe)one is entitled to lifelong entitlement– a constant nod to their superiority. When help is extended to less self exalted people it’s derided as welfare or (gasp!) socialism.
The irony is, AIG asked for/demanded that money for the good of the many (hm, so now socialism is ok?) and once received, an enormous part of it went straight to the few. When would you expect those bonuses will “trickle down” to the laid-off secretary?

My God George, you are letting this man get away with lying. Follow up on your questions. He say’s they can’t undo contracts okay, so why is the administration rewriting mortgage contracts and wanting to get principles reduced. No question about those contracts. Good Lord, do we need comedians to do the work of ALL media??

Let AIG fail! Let’s see who these best and brightest are. Companies will avoid them like dog doo. Call your representative and stop this. Start prosecutions to find out where the money went. Let them fail!

Brightest? Most talented? What are these idiots talking about? If they were the brightest and most talented, their company would not be where it is now.

I can see the same old politics talking a good game but not doing anything about it. It is time the goverment step in and force these greedy people out of their jobs or make the companys pay back every dime that they have gotten.

The idiots in there overseas location wrote up a bunch of Credit Default Swaps for trillions of dollars, bascially saying if the counterparties started amounting losses on their packaged crap they brought…then A.I.G would pay out on the SWAP, guess what? the crappy mortgage derivites went bad…so they have to pay the counterparites or the counterparties go down too…a never ending black hole, because guess what? the packaged crap continues to lose because the economy is so bad. More money coming to AIG. Bet on it.

What in the world…why in God’s good name do these things continue to happen…what happened to our standing up for what is right? AIG claims that they would lose the people the bonus’s are going to…then let them go…if they are that good they will find another job…but if these are the very people who have put AIG in the financial dire straits that they are in, who would touch them? I am incensed over this one and I hope George that you hold AIG’s feet to the fire on this one…AIG had the audacity to raise my car insurance 32% when nothing changed for underwriting and when asked why the two people I talked to couldn’t give me a credible answer. AIG, an acronym for ALL IN GREED.

It is absurd that every municipality in the country is re-negotiating employee contracts for police, fireman, etc. but we give 170 billion dollars to this private company that ‘is too big to fail’ to have them have a retreat for executives at a five star luxuary resort within weeks of this bail out. And now, not six months later they are giving out bonuse to their executives that exceed the yearly salaries of the 3 million+ ‘peons’ that have been laid off during the past year. We have a socialist country, it’s in place to rescue the upper class. They don’t have to sell their yacht, trade in the mercedes or porsche, and lay-off the maid.

AIG CEO Liddy is lying. Derivatives expert Tavakoli has the goods on him:
http://tinyurl.com/avp3zj

summers the ugly idiot said on thursday that obama’s stimulus has stablized consumer spending.
the lying shitola

The best and brightest? You must be kidding. Yeah the best and brightest for banrupting a major business. Do they really need these kind of people? Especially when there are many more “best and brightest” out there looking for jobs, who might actually do a GOOD job. In these contracts for the bonuses is there any kind of clause for job performance? If so they could deny at least some money on that.
Also if those best and brightest had any shred of decency, morality, integrity or conscience they would forgo the big bucks to help the company they serve. I guess that’s not how business is run any more.

The executives of AIG are going to get millions of government subsidized bonuses and Obama is going to claim he did all he could do to prevent it… As time goes on this story will die out and AIG will start cutting jobs and those job cuts will be decided by those who have collected millions off the taxpayers.

The bailout and stimulus handouts can be(and could have been) written with PENALTIES and LIMITS.
But no, we have Lawrence Summers and his drivel.
All the talking heads and political hacks think that the American public is so stupid that we will invest in anything when all our hard-earned dollars get sucked out the legal loopholes into the pockets of the well-connected and self-proclaimed “best and brightest.” Baloney!
I’m tired of all the “Ooops” government and journalism.

There is no point in talking silly with these blood suckers and crooks at AIG or any other financial institution. They have no morals and no scruples. Let them die by their own sword. Before the taxpayers’ money is given, even if it is just one dollar, the government must demand full and unrestricted veto power on any actions on these jokers. Let there be one representative of government sit on the boards of these companies who are empowered with such veto powers.

What’s good for the UAW is good for AIG. Contracts are Contracts, with the unemployment rate at what it is and what it is gonna be, retention should not be an issue. Where are these poor souls going to work, if not for AIG. No bonuses or retention pay for the greedy.

This is just another head fake from Washington. They want to get everyone upset about a couple of undred million dollars in corporate bonuses while they waste tens of trillions of dollars through ignorance and bad policy. Nothing ever changes in Washington, they always see failure every place else but never in their own actions.

The goverment should let AIG take its own medicine : AIG can afford giving out huge bonuses to the so-called ” best and brightest” that means they do not need our tax dollars from the original bail-out and the second one. A failure business entity should not reward those who run their own corporation down the ground. It is irrational and not logical way of doing business at the tax payers’ expense.

If the bonuses are based on + performance that should be reason enough to negate the contracts. Running a corporation into the ground isn’t a + performance. This is totally obserd. Anyone working for AIG that gets that bonus should be ashamed!

Stop and think a minute. If AIG were to cancel bonuses, what executive would want to expose themselves to the critisum of filing a law suit against a company they worked for and caused to lose billions of dollars. Don’t pay the idiots and see what they do. For the CEO to say his hands are tied is just his way of passing the buck. If he was a real leader he would tell them to eat cake until the company is profitable and has paid the tax payer back.

Liddy also wrote the government’s demands could affect AIG’s ability to retain “the best and brightest talent to lead and staff the AIG businesses”
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That is a bunch of crock! First off, it was the “the best and brightest talent” that got AIG and the rest of the banking business into this fiasco. Secondly, this is a fundamental problem in business today….CEO’s are not interested in the challenge of building companies rather they are enticed by the what is it for them (i.e, enormous salary and protection from losses). It is no wonder many CEO’s have played fast and lose. The best CEO’s (I believe) are those who have come up through the ranks of the company and have a sincere desire to see the company succeed. The worst CEO’s are those motivated by salary and jump from company to company..Justifying bonuses as ways lure the “the best and brightest talent” is incredibly self-serving and egotistical. I think the government should demand AIG repay to us any amount of money AIG pays for bonuses. In fact, it should be at least triple the amount.

Anyone who takes this bonus should also get free room and board next to Bernie M, the whole lot should be fired for incompetence and sent to prison.

The “best and the brightest” are the ones who made the decisions that got AIG into a position where it had to ask for 180 BILLION dollars in aid, as if it were a third world nation whose leaders had stolen money and cached it in a Swiss bank. Let the “best and the brightest” get other jobs somewhere else. AIG is not going to survive as an entity — it’s going to sell off its “books of business” that are profitable, and those will be renamed to avoid any taint of AIG, and AIG will be a shell full of ill-advised loans, and a by-word for stupidity. Let the “best and the brightest” sue! There’ll be nothing there to recover. Give the “best and the brightest” the bad debts resulting from the bad deals that they themselves made as a “bonus”. But don’t pay them bonuses for doing bad work!

It IS LEGAL to let AIG go under, and dole out their customers to other companies who have acted responsibly. If the CEO thinks these people will quit and get into the unemployment lines without bonuses, he is just delusional. I SAY YANK THE SILVER SPOON FROM THE MOUTHS OF THIS COMPANY. It’s time to BREAK UP THIS MONOPOLY!!

The only answer for “We The Middle Class” is to send them all to THE Guillotine !!!

Please write these same comments to President Obama and copy you senator and representative. If people cannot collect all their donation into a single BIG donation to impact their representatives may be writing to them can give them an idea of our, the people’s stand.

I heard that most Democrats are lawyers and most Republicans are businessmen. Didn’t even ONE of those lawyers know this BEFORE they decided to give AIG the money? I can’t believe this people are running our government and are able to throw our money away like this.

I can tell from reading most of the comments many of you just don’t get what went on with AIG. It wasn’t like the banks. You don’t get how these people were told if they hit a target they would get a certain amount of pay. So yeah, they will get sued. It will cost more. You don’t get how the taxpayer owns the company now so we really can’t let it fail now. Too late. Interesting. The banks have used TARP money (billions) for deals in Dubai, etc. and nobody yells. But let’s “off with the heads” of American workers?

George, why donn’t you quit it with the bunk! You and your lying guest Mr. Summers know what is really going on, so why don’t you tell the public the truth?
FACT:
were driving a Mercedes, spent $40,000 on a new kitchen with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, sent their kids to private school, had a second home at the shore, and took exotic vacations all over the world. Now their house is in foreclosure and you are paying to bail them out. The anger and outrage in the country is at the highest level since the Vietnam War. The American public is being misled by government officials, politicians, and the Federal Reserve regarding the causes of this crisis and the solutions needed to solve our economic tribulations.
The average American does not know much about the Federal Reserve. The government and the Federal Reserve prefer to operate in the shadows. If the American public understood what their policies have done to their lives, they would be rioting in the streets. Henry Ford had a similar opinion:
“It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
Most Americans believe that the Federal Reserve is part of the government. They are wrong. It is a privately held corporation owned by stockholders. The Federal Reserve System is owned by the largest banks in the United States. There are Class A,B, and C shareholders. The owner banks and their shares in the Federal Reserve are a secret. Why is this a secret? It is likely that the biggest banks in the country are the major shareholders. Does this explain why Citicorp, Bank of America and JP Morgan, despite being insolvent, are being propped up by Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner?
The history of National Banks in the United States has been controversial since the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution of the United States unequivocally states that only Congress has the authority to coin money, not an independent bank owned by unknown bankers.
The Congress shall have Power to coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures
Article 1, Section 8 – US Constitution
Our most recent horrifying experience with an all powerful central bank has led to the current worldwide financial crisis. In less than one century the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States has destroyed our currency and has allowed bankers to gain unwarranted power over the country. They had the ability and opportunity to bring down the worldwide financial system.
When the average American is told that the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power since the inception of the Federal Reserve in 1913, they look at you with a blank stare and start wondering whether American Idol is on TV tonight. The systematic inflation purposely created by the Federal Reserve silently robs the average American of their standard of living. The CPI figures published by the US government tell the story.
The government began keeping official track of inflation in 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was created. The CPI on January 1, 1914 was 10.0. The CPI on January 1, 2009 was 211.1. This means that a man’s suit that cost $10 in 1913 would cost $211 today, a 2,111% increase in 96 years. This is a 95% loss in purchasing power of the dollar. For some further perspective here are the prices of some other common items in 1913 per the Morristown Daily Record:
Boy’s shoes for school, .98/pair Women’s shoes, 2.00-8.00/pair
Bread, .10/3 loaves Butter, fancy, .30/lb
Cereal, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, .09/box Eggs, Fresh Western, .27/dozen
Peanut butter, .09/jar Toilet paper, .26/6 rolls
Daily Record [Morristown NJ], .01/daily paper
Notable on the CPI chart is that in the years following the creation of the Federal Reserve, inflation ran at double digit rates to finance Woodrow Wilson’s foreign intervention into World War I. The other notable period was in the years following President Nixon’s closing of the gold window in 1971. This led to rampant inflation that wasn’t tamed until the early 1980′s by Paul Volcker, the only independent courageous Federal Reserve Chairman in its history. The figures so far in the 21st Century seem modest. This is due partly to the methodical downward manipulation of the calculation by government bureaucrats. The period from 2010 to 2020 will show a dramatic jump caused by all of the money printing and reckless spending that is occurring today. Book it Dano.
The average American might just conclude that prices always go up, so what’s the big deal about inflation. This is where the Federal Reserve and politicians have pulled the wool over your eyes. The CPI was 30.9 in 1964. Today, it is 211.1. This means that prices have risen 683% since 1964. The only problem is that your wages have not risen at the same rate, even using the government manipulated CPI. Using a true CPI figure, average weekly earnings are 64% below what they were in 1964. This explains why a family of five could live well with one parent working in 1964, but even with both parents working and using debt in prodigious amounts, the average family does not live as well today.
The First Bank of the United States was created in 1791. Alexander Hamilton, the 1st Secretary of the Treasury, proposed this bank and convinced a hesitant President Washington to agree. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were against the concept. It favored the moneyed classes of the North versus the agrarian South. The bank was given a 20 year charter and President James Madison let it expire in 1811. He then renewed the charter in 1816. The wise men who took unprecedented risks in declaring independence from England’s tyranny, feared the tyranny of bankers equally:
“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America rise, not from defects in the Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.”
John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1787
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.”
Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President -1802
[The] Bank of the United States… is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the principles and form of our Constitution… An institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?
Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President -1803
“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance”.
James Madison, U.S. President
President Andrew Jackson was the first and only President in the history to pay off the National Debt. He worked tirelessly to rescind the charter of the Second Bank of the United States. His reasons for abolishing the bank were:
It concentrated the nation’s financial strength in a single institution.
It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
It served mainly to make the rich richer.
It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
It favored northeastern states over southern and western states.
President Jackson believed that only Congress should be responsible for the issuance and control of the currency. Delegating that duty to powerful New York bankers was distasteful to him.
“If Congress has the right to issue paper money, it was given to them to be used … and not to be delegated to individuals or corporations”
President Andrew Jackson, Vetoed Bank Bill of 1836
President Jackson, shown here “driving out the devils and money changers”
with his order to withdraw public money from the central bank
-Edward Clay lithograph, published 1833
President Jackson’s honesty and anger at the bankers should resonate today, as bankers have again brought our country to its knees.
“Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the grace of the Eternal God, will rout you out.”
A President with Jackson’s strength of character would put the blame where it belongs today. He would rout out these criminal bankers, rather than give them more taxpayer money to squander. A President with a moral backbone would put an end to the disastrous 96 year experiment of the Federal Reserve. Instead our last two spineless Presidents have put Goldman Sachs bankers in charge of our national Treasury. An examination of inflation throughout the history of the United States proves that from the beginning of our nation through wars and the Industrial Revolution, the country experienced virtually no inflation as our currency was backed by gold. The creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 and the closing of the gold window in 1971 unleashed a tsunami of inflation that continues today.
Karl Marx published his Communist Manifesto in 1848. It included 10 planks. Two of the ten planks were as follows:
A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
Centralization of credit in the hands of the State by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
The dates February 3, 1913 and December 24, 1913 framed a year which placed our country on a downward fiscal spiral. The United States had tinkered with an income tax during the Civil War and the 1890′s, but the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional. Until 1913, the U.S. government was restrained from overspending because it was completely reliant on tariffs and duties to generate revenue. The Sixteenth Amendment changed the game forever.
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
When you give a Congressman a dollar, he’ll take a hundred billion. The initial tax rates of 1% to 7% were rather modest. That did not last long. The top tax rate reached 92% during the 1950s and today rates are still 500% to 1,000% higher than they were in 1913. The government is addicted to tax revenue. In 2007, they absconded $1.2 trillion in taxes from American individuals. Does anyone think that the bloated government bureaucracy spent these funds more efficiently or for a more beneficial purpose than its citizens could have?
Without $1.2 trillion in individual tax revenue, Congressmen would not be able to add 9,200 earmarks to the current $400 billion Federal spending bill every year. This is how they waste your money:
$1.8 million to research “swine odor and manure management” in Ames, Iowa.
$41.5 million to upgrade presidential libraries of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and John F. Kennedy, according to the Heritage Foundation.
$2.9 million to study how to breed and raise shrimp on “shrimp farms.” Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) reports that since 1985 the federal government has allocated $71 million to the study of shrimp science.
$209,000 to improve blueberry production in Georgia, according to CAGW.
$200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, Calif.
$5.8 million for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate in Boston, according to the Heritage Foundation.
$6.6 million for Formosan subterranean termites, also according to Heritage.
Rothschild, J.P. Morgan & the Federal Reserve
“Those few who can understand the system (check book money and credit) will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on it favors, that there will be little opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system, will bear it burdens without complaint, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests.”
Rothschild’s Bros. of London
The House of Rothschild had been the dominant banking family in Europe for two centuries. They were known for making fortunes during Panics and War. Some claimed that they would cause Panics in order to take advantage of those who panicked. The Panic of 1907 was the used as the reason for creating the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis attributed the causes of the Panic of 1907 to financial manipulation from the existing banking establishment.
“If Knickerbocker Trust would falter, then Congress and the public would lose faith in all trust companies and banks would stand to gain, the bankers reasoned.”
1906, Frank Vanderlip Vice President of the Rockefeller owned National City Bank convinced many of New York’s banking establishment that they needed a banker-controlled central bank that could serve the nation’s financial system. Up to that time, the House of Morgan had filled that role. JP Morgan had initiated previous panics in order to initiate stronger control over the banking system. (Picture slimy Mr. Potter offering the members of the Bailey Building & Loan, 50 cents on the dollar for their shares during a bank panic in the classic movie Its A Wonderful Life). Morgan initiated the Panic of 1907 by circulating rumors that the Knickerbocker Bank and Trust Co. of America was going broke, there was a run on the banks creating a financial crisis which began to solidify support for a central banking system. During this panic Paul Warburg, a Rothschild associate, wrote an essay called “A Plan for a Modified Central Bank” which called for a Central Bank in which 50% would be owned by the government and 50% by the nation’s banks.
In November 1910 a secret conference took place on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia. Those in attendance were: JP Morgan, Paul Warburg, John D. Rockefeller, Bernard Baruch, Senator Nelson Aldrich, Colonel House, Frank Vanderlip, Benjamin Strong, Charles Norton, Jacob Schiff, and Henry Davison. Out of this meeting of the most powerful bankers and politicians in the country came the plan for a Central Bank. This conference was unknown until 1933. In 1935, Frank Vanderlip wrote in the Saturday Evening Post: “I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of our secret expedition to Jekyll Island as the occasion of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System.”
Behind the scenes these powerful men were formulating the plan for a Federal Reserve System. There was no outcry from the public to implement this plan. The public knew nothing of this. The Aldrich Plan was renamed the Federal Reserve Act and pushed forward by Paul Warburg and Colonel House. Warburg essentially wrote the Act and pressured Congressmen to see his way or lose the next election. Colonel House, who had socialist leanings, was the top advisor to President Wilson.
The Glass Bill (the House version of the final Federal Reserve Act) had passed the House on September 18, 1913 by 287 to 85. On December 19, 1913, the Senate passed their version by a vote of 54-34. More than forty important differences in the House and Senate versions remained to be settled, and the opponents of the bill in both houses of Congress were led to believe that many weeks would elapse before the Conference bill would be taken up. The Congressmen prepared to leave Washington for the annual Christmas recess, assured that the Conference bill would not be brought up until the following year. The creators of the bill then pulled the ultimate scam on the American public. In a single day, they ironed out all forty of the disputed passages in the bill and quickly brought it to a vote. On Monday, December 22, 1913, the bill was passed by the House 282-60 and the Senate 43-23. This meant that the single most important piece of legislation ever passed by the Senate was missing the votes of 26 Senators because it was passed during the Christmas recess. President Wilson, at the urging of Bernard Baruch, signed the bill on December 23, 1913. A few years later, President Wilson had second thoughts:
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world–no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men.”
There were some brave Americans who did oppose this legislation and foresaw the devastation that it would lead to.
“Throughout my public life I have supported all measures designed to take the Government out of the banking business. This bill puts the Government into the banking business as never before in our history. The powers vested in the Federal Reserve Board seen to me highly dangerous especially where there is political control of the Board. I should be sorry to hold stock in a bank subject to such dominations. The bill as it stands seems to me to open the way to a vast inflation of the currency. I had hoped to support this bill, but I cannot vote for it cause it seems to me to contain features and to rest upon principles in the highest degree menacing to our prosperity, to stability in business, and to the general welfare of the people of the United States.”
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge – Dec 17, 1913
“From now on, depressions will be scientifically created.”
Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. – 1913
John Maynard Keynes, the current hero of the Obama administration and Paul Krugman, had this to say about the Federal Reserve in 1920.
“Should government refrain from regulation (taxation), the worthlessness of the money become apparent and the fraud can no longer be concealed. By this means government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people and not one man in a million will detect the theft.”
Mandate from Hell
According to the Federal Reserve’s own website, their duties fall into four general areas:
Conducting the nation’s monetary policy by influencing the monetary and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.
Supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation’s banking and financial system and to protect the credit rights of consumers
Maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that may arise in financial markets
Providing financial services to depository institutions, the U.S. government, and foreign official institutions, including playing a major role in operating the nation’s payments system
The American public was told that the Federal Reserve would eliminate any future bank panics. From 1913 through 1920, inflation increased at more than 10% per year as Wilson spent vast sums during World War I and its aftermath. From the early 1920s to 1929, the monetary supply expanded at a rapid pace and the nation experienced tremendous economic growth. Benjamin Strong, one of the participants at the secret conference on Jekyll Island, was the Federal Reserve head. By the end of the 1920s, speculation and loose money had propelled asset and equity prices to unsustainable levels. The stock market crashed in 1929, and as the banks struggled with liquidity problems, the Federal Reserve cut the money supply. This was the greatest financial panic and economic collapse in American history so far – and it never could have happened without the Fed’s intervention. The Fed caused the bubble with loose monetary policy. The Depression did not become Great until the Smoot Hawley Act in 1930 destroyed world trade and the raising of the top income tax rates from 25% to 63% in 1932 destroyed the incentive to earn money. Over 9,000 banks failed and a few of the old robber barons’ banks managed to swoop in and grab up thousands of competitors for pennies on the dollar.
The Federal Reserve’s primary mandates were maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates. Their other chief function was to supervise and regulate banks to ensure the banking system is safe. Lets assess their success regarding their mandates:
Unemployment reached 25% during the Great Depression; attained levels above 10% in 1982; and will breach 10% in the next year. Grade: Failure
Based on the chart above and the CPI data since the Federal Reserve’s inception, the dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power. Grade: Failure
Based on the chart below interest rates have been anything but moderate since the inception of the Federal Reserve. They have consistently caused booms and busts by setting rates too low or too high. Grade: Failure
The Federal Reserve was supposed to supervise the activities of banks. Instead, under Alan Greenspan, they stepped aside and let banks take preposterous risks while giving an unspoken assurance that the Fed would clean up any messes that they caused. This total dereliction of duty gross negligence has led the greatest financial collapse in history. Grade: Failure
The Chairman of the House banking & Currency Committee Louis T. McFadden fought a lonely battle against the Federal Reserve in the early 1930s. He was swept out of office when his opponent in the next election received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.
“Mr. Chairman, we have in this Country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks, hereinafter called the Fed. The Fed has cheated the Government of these United States and the people of the United States out of enough money to pay the Nation’s debt. The depredations and iniquities of the Fed have cost enough money to pay the National debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of these United States, has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through the defects of the law under which it operates, through the maladministration of that law by the Fed and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.”
Louis T. McFadden – Representative from PA 1934
Mr. McFadden has a soul mate in Representative Ron Paul from Texas. Mr. Paul has been on a one man mission to abolish the Federal Reserve for over a decade. He seems to be the only person in Congress with the courage, fortitude and intellect to understand the damage that has been caused by the Federal Reserve and call for its abolition. The entrenched political class, despise Mr. Paul because his call to abolish the Federal Reserve would destroy their ill begotten wealth and power.
Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy. In addition, most Americans have suffered a steadily eroding purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies. This represents a real, if hidden, tax imposed on the American people.
From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the burst of the dotcom bubble last year, every economic downturn suffered by the country over the last 80 years can be traced to Federal Reserve policy. The Fed has followed a consistent policy of flooding the economy with easy money, leading to a misallocation of resources and an artificial “boom” followed by a recession or depression when the Fed-created bubble bursts. In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand up for working Americans by putting an end to the manipulation of the money supply which erodes Americans’ standard of living, enlarges big government, and enriches well-connected elites, by cosponsoring my legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve.
Ron Paul – Sept 10, 2002
Representative Paul sized up his colleagues in Congress and the Federal Reserve perfectly in 2006 when they were oblivious to the impending disaster that was about to befall the nation. He was belittled by the mainstream press and fellow Congressmen.
The coming dollar crisis is not likely to be “fixed” by politicians who are unwilling to make hard choices, admit mistakes, and spend less money. Demographic trends will place even greater demands on Congress to maintain benefits for millions of older Americans who are dependent on the federal government.
Faced with uncomfortable financial realities, Congress will seek to avoid the day of reckoning by the most expedient means available – and the Federal Reserve undoubtedly will accommodate Washington by printing more dollars to pay the bills. The Fed is the enabler for the spending addicts in Congress, who would rather spend new fiat money than face the political consequences of raising taxes or borrowing more abroad.
The irony is that many of the Fed’s biggest cheerleaders are the same supposed capitalists who denounced centralized economic planning when practiced by the former Soviet Union. Large banks and Wall Street firms love the Fed’s easy money policy, because they profit at the front end from the resulting loan boom and artificially high equity prices. It’s the little guy who loses when the inflated dollars finally trickle down to him and erode his buying power. Someday Americans will understand that Federal Reserve bankers have no magic ability – and certainly no legal or moral right – to decide how much money should exist and what the cost of borrowing money should be.
Ron Paul – July 11, 2006
Before he became a tool of the political ruling elite and the bankers who truly control the country, Alan Greenspan actually understood and supported a currency backed by gold which couldn’t be manipulated by corrupt politicians. The confiscation of middle class wealth through the insidious use of inflation has proceeded unchecked for 96 years.
In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists’ tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists’ antagonism toward the gold standard.
Alan Greenspan – 1966
Howard Beale, the news anchor in the movie Network, could have spoken the same lines today that he was speaking in 1976. He describes our current financial crisis to a tee.
I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.
I want you to get mad!
I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.
All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad.
You’ve gotta say, “I’m a human being! My life has value!”
So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!!”
Anyone who is not mad as hell at this point is not paying attention. Your tax and spend corrupted politician leaders and your banker controlled Federal Reserve have borrowed and spent your tax dollars, your children’s tax dollars, and their children’s tax dollars desperately attempting to prop up this bankrupt system. The unleashing of a never ending tsunami of printed dollars by the Federal Reserve makes every dollar worth less. They have systematically created inflation that has slowly but surely reduced your standard of living. Politicians in the pocket of lobbyists, corporate interests, and bankers have used their power to tax in order to spend trillions on worthless projects in their districts to insure re-election. The combination of taxing and printing has led to a National Debt of $11 trillion.
Bankers love debt. The more debt, the more interest they collect. Issuing credit cards and collecting 21% interest and billions in late fees seemed like a can’t miss proposition. It was until people couldn’t pay the debt back. Now the unwinding of the greatest debt bubble in history has created a 2nd Great Depression. Instead of learning from the past, the Federal Reserve has chosen to do exactly what led to the crisis. They have lowered rates to 0% and have printed money at prodigious rates. The Fed has doubled their balance sheet in the last 12 months.
They have loaned billions to the bankrupt banks that inhabit our financial system while accepting worthless pieces of paper as collateral. They have hailed back to Jekyll Island and the cloak of secrecy. They will not reveal to the public the banks they have loaned money to or the collateral that backs up those loans. The arrogance of Ben Bernanke proves that the Federal Reserve answers to bankers, and not to the American public. The books and records of the Federal Reserve are not open to scrutiny by the General Accounting Office. Ron Paul has introduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act which would open their books to the public. No organization with as much power as the Federal Reserve should be permitted to operate in the shadows.
A recent article by David Galand from Casey Research pointed out the insidious methods by which the government extracts our money for their self serving schemes:
Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax
Excise Tax Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax IRS Interest /IRS Penalties
Liquor Tax Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax Property Tax
Real Estate Tax Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax Road Usage Tax
Sales Tax Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Utility Taxes Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax Workers Compensation Tax.
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
After digesting this disgusting list, do you feel under taxed?
them cap and trade fees. The Federal Reserve will pull out all stops to create inflation. When you owe the rest of the world $11 trillion, inflation makes the debt less burdensome. The dollar will decline versus gold. With the enormous amount of currency creation and spending by the government, the economy will eventually pull out of this depression. The acceleration will take the Federal Reserve by surprise. They will be hesitant to raise interest rates. The inflation genie will get out of the bottle and will not go back. The hyperinflation that takes hold will lead to social unrest, rioting, and a drastic reduction in the American standard of living.
There is no solution that will not be painful to everyone in the United States. The only solution that would put America back on a path of sustainable prosperity would be a gold/precious metals backed currency that would force government and its citizens to live within its means. Congress would need to vote for something that would take away its power. With our current political system, this is impossible. Money is power. This leads to only one conclusion. The existing Ponzi scheme will have to collapse before we can adopt a rational financial system for America. It may take decades, or it may happen in 2010. No one knows. If the country can be convinced to follow the wisdom of Ron Paul, we still have a chance to avoid this fate.
When the Federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans.

Bonuses whould be given out to people who do a good job. The fact that AIG needs so much bail out money obviously shows that the “best and brightest” working for them didn’t do a good job. They’re afraid that they might get sued by these people? They shouldn’t be because these people did a lousy job running their company and are not entitled to bonuses.

Fine let them have there bonuses they earned it (like a crook anyway), but take back the $180 billion the fed have “loaned” them and let them sink a a ship with 180 billion holes in it. Take the $180 billion give it to the taxpayers to spend, it is a lot better than the avg of $13 worthless we will get back on our paycheck, what a joke let AIG sink. and what a joke the bailouts are, everyday people file for BK, everyday people come out of it stronger.

Is there a word that can express more outrage than outrageous?
I try very hard to be positive and try to find the good in everything.
That said, these ARE the very people that (in part) ARE RESPONSIBLE for the “economic conditions” the global economic meltdown, that w ALL are facing and that we all are trying to dig out from under.
Put aside for a moment that they are now using taxpayer funds for these bonuses, the culpable parties & individuals that are responsible for there direct involvement HAVE to be held ACCOUNTABLE.

This is tyranny!

Let them sue. Those who sued would have a Scarlet Letter worse than the original hung around their necks for the rest of their lives. Their pictures would be plastered across every major network and they would be pariahs. And enough with the “we don’t want them to leave.” Where are they going to go? I’d love to hear their next interview. “So Mr. Aig Employee, tell us about the things you accomplished in your last job.” “You created the biggest economic disaster of the past 70 years?” “Wow, that’s quite an accomplishment, who wouldn’t want to hire you?”

Worry about keeping the brightest talent in AIG? Gee! They should be worrying about losing their jobs. Let them leave. See who is going to hire them. They will beg to have a job instead having a bonus. The CEO of AIG should be fired.

AIG said they need to give the bonuses to retain the brightest and the best in the industry. Obviously they have no idea what the brightest and best are, they are satisfied to keep the ones who will continue to screw the American public.

Folks, I love this country, and I’m sick of the lies we are being spoon-fed by the main stream media hacks, who are in cahoots with the criminals manipulating our economy/money on purpose to destroy this nation. They are lying to us all. PLEASE watch this video for some insight before they delete this post. They don’t want you to know the truth. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8484911570371055528&ei=5CO9SaNvp7ioA82gib4B&q=the+creature+from+jecjyl+island&hl=en

Then have the US attorney file suit against these executives for malfeasance.

What does Edward Liddy, CEO of AIG, not get? No loan, no business, no jobs, no contracts, no bonuses. It’s simple. This is not rocket science.

George, you are a liar and an Obama sychophant.
DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS TAPPER.
Obama Administration Lie of the Day:
Summers, just now with George “I create Dem strategy every morning with Rahm/Carville/Begala” Stephanopolis, said that Obama inherited a trillion dollar deficit as created by a Republican President and a Republican Congress….
Apparently Larry didnt notice the Dems winning Congress in 2006.
Sickening lie, repeated enough, will become truth in the public’s mind.
Now George is attacking McConnell with vigor, right after kissing Summers’ ring for 20 minutes and failing to rebut Summers’ LIE that the GOP controlled CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENCY IN 2008. If George can’t bring himself to correct outright factual lies by Obama’s advisors on his show, he should be removed.
Sickening to allow George to create talking points for Obama with Rahm and then cross examine the GOP about those talking points.
Here is the quote and Georgie boy’s failure to correct Summers LIE:
SUMMERS: We’d love to see Senator McConnell’s concrete
alternatives that gets closer to a balanced budget. The situation the
president inherited of nearly $1 trillion deficits, before he did
anything, came at a time — came at a time when it was a Republican
president and a Republican Congress that were making the decisions.
……..
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, Larry Summers, thanks very much for your
time this morning.
SUMMERS: Thank you.

As in every other business failure, a few people made bad decisions that sank the company. The large majority made money for the bank, or protected them from more substantial losses. They did their jobs, and bonuses are in many cases, more than 50% of their pay. And yes, if the best and brightest leave, the feds will lose even more billions. Lastly, ALL of the fed money is as an investment in stock, and the terms are so tough AIG is in worse shape than they should be. The rating agencies and the bank’s risk managers completely underestimated the risks on securitized debt obligations, and that’s a problem because huge numbers of people are not paying their mortgages per the contracts they signed. When the majority turned into deadbeats, nobody’s money is safe anymore.

“What that company did, the way it was not regulated, the way no one was watching, what’s proved necessary, it is outrageous,”
To say there weren’t regulations is just crazy, every one of these companies had the best regulation of all until the govt. stepped in and that is, if you do stupid things, you fail.
This is just one more example of the slippery slope that goes along with these bailouts and what happens when in the end they will fail anyway because the same stupid people are in charge.
You might as well take this TAXPAYER money and light a match to it.

I was always under the impression that a bonus was a “pay for performance” perk when a company was profitable. These bonuses certainly can’t be “pay for performance” since these clowns drove the company into the ground. Also if you call these bonuses “retention payments” it still doesn’t work- these losers should NOT be retained!

We’re going to become a nation of martial law if Bamy gives AIG the money. Mar my words. There will be rioting in the streets and martial law will be imposed. Go ahead, Bamy. Give your supporters our great great grand kids money. I dare you.

So these AIG employees broke the law falsifying documents on insuring risking mortgages and now want the law to protect them on their bonus contract? How convenient. Let’s bring on these threats of lawsuits and we will see how they can defend their actions in a court room.

I say stop the bonuses and let them sue! If we are going to spend billions of dollars to rescue AIG from itself, then I think it’s worth investing millions of dollars to fight the bonuses, which total hundreds of millions of dollars. I guarantee that in this environment, a settlement would be reached, and the millions of dollars spent on fighting the bonuses would lead to 10x or more in savings on these bonuses.

Simply Outrageous!! These Wall Streets gang bang us through President Obama and Treasury Tim. There is nothing we can do about.
Stop all the bailouts. Spend money where we need the mosts.

Virtually moments before he moved into the White House, Obama stunningly nominated 3 tax cheats in a row. Daschle and another withdrew their nomination. Timothy Geithner got pushed through. It was Obama total slap in the face to the millions who voted for strict ethics, but Obama got his man in power. Obama had argued that Geithner was SOOOOO unique and important to the “recovery.” Basically a fear tactic. When Geithber met with Congress, though, THEY were stunned that he presented them with virtually no ideas and no plan after having a month to prepare for the meeting. AIG will get their way. It was INSANE for Obama & Company to dish out ANY of OUR money without strict, strict legal stipulations. That has continued and the results will probably be catastrophic. Cognitively, what is happening is that huge, huge resources are being dished out in lax fashion. After all, what’s a few million or tens of millions when you have a questionable trillion dollar “stimulus” program. Pretty insane that Obama often chides the executives AFTER forking over cash to keep them alive and eating….

We’re going to become a nation of martial law if Bamy gives AIG the money. Mar my words. There will be rioting in the streets and martial law will be imposed. Go ahead, Bamy. Give your supporters our great great grand kids money. I dare you.
……I already spoke of the martial law subject…..Google “topix end of world begins oct 2008″ and see for yourself

let the bums fail…why are we helping these people???
no more money for aig,,,EVER…

So apparently bonuses are not tied to any performance criteria. Wonderful! What a bunch of snakes!

Hey this is true capitalism at its best. This is what the republicans have pushed for all these years. The republicans have always supported a lack of regulations, and a “Free” market…where execs are free to do whatever they want.

Go ahead and sue! I’ll bet the legal prosecution fees would be less than the tax money we gave them. I’m hopping mad! Bums!!!

I still have my Obama sign up in my yard, but I must say, I am very disheartened that Tim Geitner is so incredibly TONE DEAF! If you can manipulate contracts when it comes to mortgage cram downs, or the auto labor contracts, YOU CAN FIND A WAY LEGALLY TO TELL THESE EXECS TO GO FLY A KITE! And I want to see some names – who are these people who are putting THEIR pocketbooks ahead of America’s at this critical juncture? We need a HALL OF SHAME where Americans can see who the culprits are who are getting away with their hard earned money in the form of government bail out bonuses.

Ladies of the night always get the money up front. When Obama’s team gave AIG the money, a legally binding contract forbiding large bonuses should have been included. I voted for obama, but this is his fault. He gave away money without the appropriate strings attached. President Obama, you are about to distribute a lot more money, please think ahead.

I am so tired of this issue of “the sanctity of the contract.” What BS! If we don’t have the laws now to vacate destructive contracts, then let’s suspend any payments under existing contracts and move to implement a new law ASAP. Are our political leaders completely devoid of creativity? This repeated story of “There’s nothing we can do about it now, but we’ll fix it in the future.” is absolute hogwash.

President Obama, the American people demand thatyou require AIG to return the money, immediately!!!!
Enough is Enough!!!!

The CONTRACTS would have been null and void had AIG not received a bailout and allowed to fail. AIG, under the circumstances, should not honor the and let the lawsuits begin. 1) The contracts being so one sided would allow AIG to argue against them, 2) If the greedy and abusive CEOS and execs are that ignorant to suit after they have already been overpaid – let them – see how far they get, 3) If suit is brought – AIG can countersuit the execs and CEOS for corporate sabotage and neglect. The CEOS and execs (already overpaid to such an excessive degree) lack all integrity and human decency to even accept any bonuses at this point.

President Obama, we the American people are mad as h-e-l-l about this and your point man says there nothing you can do. Sir, you are the leader of the free world!! Your integrity is at stake!!! Sir, you had better do something!!!!

Secondly, Do we honestly believe either the Dem’s or Repuke’s will save us from Themselves? DO You? If you do you are sorely mistaken. These MEN are thieves. This government let’s white collar college educated Ccksuckers who belong to their little group sex parties. Rule us? The commmon American man and woman. This is nothing short of King of England, Tax Tax Tax, bend over the people and brake their Backs Slavery for EVERY American. Folks we need a REVOLUTION and we need to go up there to congress and senate with Guns and do something about this SH!T !!!!!!!!

You people on here make me lauph seriously. You scream and yell yet nothing will happen and you will do nothing about it. They will get there bonuses and you will pay for it. Your representitives are in the pockets of these rich CEOs how do you think they got your money in the first place? Instead of biching you should do something about it. Take back your government before its too late. But you are all to lazy to do it. If we all stood together we might get something done but tht wont happen. Take control call these scum bag congressmen and your president and tell them in no uncertain terms that if they allow this to happen they will be out of a job in the next election.

ou people on here make me lauph seriously.
What? Are you serious? You think we dont know this? Then you’re as lame as congress moron. WE DID CALL on a little telephone and tell our congressional azzholes NOT to vote for the Bailout and They Did. Like I said. What they ONLY UNDERSTAND is violence. Nothing short fo CIVIL WAR will ever, get it EVER Fix this kind of bullsh!t going on today. They know it and laugh at you and us for crabbing about it on dialogue billboards such as this. CIVIL WAR People. That’s the only way. Ok, don’t believe me. This will go on for 8 more years. Fine

I just have to say this because it’s the best thing I’ve heard from government official yet and that was Ron Paul. With this Stimulus package & what they should do with it…”Instead of bailing out all these corporations, SEND A CHECK OUT TO EVERY AMERICAN PERSON.” He says that WILL get the ECONOMY going again and let the Banks & AIG fail. Which I think when push comes to shove, those businesses would seem to able to pull a few million out of thin air or from their safe’s behind the big painting on the wall in their offices and/or corporate jets.

Recall the bailout money and begin prosecution of these best and brightest The smart money at this point would be on the whistle blowers!! They in some cases collect a portion of the money recovered. Any of you know where to point the fingers and help the US find these, “most desired, best, and brightest employees”.. You should be contacting your local Democratic Representatives.

Send subpoenas instead. Let these best and brightest have their day in court. Most likely sitting in the jury will be someone who has lost or knows a family member that has suffered as a result of the economic theories of these, “best and brightest”. They’ll get what they deserve then

I think it’s safe to say we are all mad as hell and we are not going to take it any more.
We have the power. Write and call your Congressmen and Senators. NO MONEY FOR AIG. We can also choose to take our business from them or any company they own and give it to someone else.
If the government is going to continue to pump OUR MONEY into this beast, we have the power to take down their business by not patronizing them. TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE AMERICA! RAISE YOUR VOICES!! NO BUSINESS DEALINGS WITH AIG STARTING TODAY!!!

Let’s keep it simple. If you do business with AIG, stop. Move your business to a competing firm. Customer attrition is the only thing that will make AIG pay attention. We will not stand for this.

I’m a facts loving fool; so I found malfax’s long treatise interesting. A study of the economics of the Holy Roman Empire would prove a case of daja-vu for us. And the battles between the Patricians and the Plebeians continue….

AIG states: the government’s demands could affect AIG’s ability to retain “the best and brightest talent to lead and staff the AIG businesses” if “employees believe that their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury.”
I say: You don’t have the best and brightest talent or you wouldn’t be in the mess you’re in right now.
Fire them all and get some honest, decent workers.

Are we being unfair to AIG? It seems AIG is spreading the bailout money around. It is reported the lobbyists in Washington went wild! We now have all the missing Billions of Dollars in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. with all the Billions of Dollars of bail out money, becoming Trillions of Dollars, that is also missing! Is it true from the reports in Europe that the Swiss Banks are having trouble putting all the new U.S. 100 dollar currency into secure vaults? If they run out of room will they have to take some of the gold bars with the Swastika imprint on them and put them somewhere else? A lot of American, Jewish, Russian, European, Chinese and others blood paid for those gold bars. Now, again a lot of blood from people around the world, is paying for all those new crisp 100 hundred dollar bills (currency) being hidden in these vaults. Do you think the Swiss Banks as reported last week will really give out the information of all the deposits of everyone using their banking system? Do you think if they did some our economic problems in the United States would be solved? – With Blessings to all.

Outrageous is putting it mildly. AIG can fail as far as I am concerned – once they are forced to return all the money they have already gotten. Then, I couldn’t care less if they all rot. If they can’t see the trees for the forest, get out and leave the rest of us in peace.

I’M MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!

Well, it appears ABC NEWS is deleting any reference to the quote from Summers as soon as it is posted. Typical sychophantic response to being caught in a lie. You think it okay to trick the American people into believing that the Dems had nothing to do with the deficits of 07, 08 and 09 when indeed they were in charge of Congress, as the Obama Administration’s point man wants to trick the public into believing?
That’s change we can believe in? Straight lies via propaganda delivered by ABC News to millions?
Seriously?
Here is the quote and Georgie boy’s failure to correct Summers LIE:
SUMMERS: We’d love to see Senator McConnell’s concrete
alternatives that gets closer to a balanced budget. The situation the
president inherited of nearly $1 trillion deficits, before he did
anything, came at a time — came at a time when it was a Republican
president and a Republican Congress that were making the decisions.
……..
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, Larry Summers, thanks very much for your
time this morning.
SUMMERS: Thank you.

Well, it appears ABC NEWS is deleting any reference to the quote from Summers as soon as it is posted. Typical sychophantic response to being caught in a lie. You think it okay to trick the American people into believing that the Dems had nothing to do with the deficits of 07, 08 and 09 when indeed they were in charge of Congress, as the Obama Administration’s point man wants to trick the public into believing?
That’s change we can believe in? Straight lies via propaganda delivered by ABC News to millions?
Seriously?
Here is the quote and Georgie boy’s failure to correct Summers LIE:
SUMMERS: We’d love to see Senator McConnell’s concrete
alternatives that gets closer to a balanced budget. The situation the
president inherited of nearly $1 trillion deficits, before he did
anything, came at a time — came at a time when it was a Republican
president and a Republican Congress that were making the decisions.
……..
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, Larry Summers, thanks very much for your
time this morning.
SUMMERS: Thank you.

Take the money back and try the people who took unfair advantage of the situation for fraud. Leave it to AIG to continue the fine capitalistic practices that sunk their company and devalued the national currency. But that’s the inevitable end game of capitalism isn’t it? Consume, deplete, move on to the next profitable target.

Mr. Libby, you stated that you are obligated under contract to pay these bonus. I know a little about bonus and these type of bonus are based on results. Looking at your financial statements for the last year, none of these contract will stand up in court unless you have lied in your financial statements. Mr. Geithner, to keep faith with the American people, you must force them to cut the bonus, they can’t be justified and Mr. Libby knows it, its his lawyer talking.

Then perhaps the real answer is to see how many of those demanding bonuses should be brought up on charges and proceed to break AIG and all the other “too large to fail” corporations into smaller more manageable companies with a strict prohibition on buying and selling themselves and each other.

Let them sue. NOT A SINGLE ONE of these clowns would have the stones to sue. Their names would be plastered all over the evening news, every website in America, and every newspaper in this country. They would be pariahs. They would be spit on when walking down the street. Their children would be mercilessly bullied at school. There’s not a single person among them that would want to put themselves or their families through the public ridicule they would have to endure. If they deserved the money, that’s one thing.

Am wondering if ABC forwards these remarks to their guests of the day… Any guesses?

Contact the White House. Tell them these flimsy excuses of 1) there are contracts and 2) these people will walk if they don’t get their bonuses are both ridiculous. Let the scammers sue. Let them be pariahs for the rest of their lives. The only way we stop this is to flood the politicians with our outrage:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

If these were the “best and brightest” why is AIG in such trouble. Also, who is hiring now? No one can afford to hire during this down turn. Let the “best and brightest” go!

lr3921 is exactly right. AT A MINIMUM, if we pay these bonuses, the names of those bold enough to say they deserve these bonuses should be plastered across the Internet and be listed on the nightly news on every major channel.

This is just a tiny fraction of the problems you get when you let government interfere with business. AIG should have gone bankrupt and solved its own issues. Instead, the government puts in money, and they tried to impose some populist nonsense on AIG which probably isn’t legal but sounds good. The government is always the problem and it is never the solution. Obama is a complete loser in over his head and obviously not up to the job. A 1 termer for sure.

I want my tax money back or I am going to sue. What’s that? Right, I am a measly Amreican pleebe with no right to have my tax money returned from the best and brightest at AIG!

I just watched the George Stephanopoulos “Round Table” clip that included a segment on the John Stewart vs. Jim Cramer battle last week. It was interesting to see the networks (including ABC) distancing themselves from Cramer as if he is a totally different entity. Cramer is a buffoon and may give the message differently than the rest of the so called financial journalists but his message was the same as all the others.

This is almost as good as the “Were afraid to tell who get the bonuses crap that just came out of these brain surgeons. These ARE the people that (in large part) ARE responsible for the mess we are ALL in. They need to be fired and where even remotely possible, criminally charged. That they collectively have the balls to say that this was, or is not, in there ability to stop continues to perpetuate the arrogance that got us here in the first place. ENOUGH ALREADY.
Fire the “executive management” as well as the so call “Board of Directors” as well as the “compensation committee” nonsense and replace them all. People, they are literally stealing OUR money AND our futures.

Call the Bluff: I too have anger, however, not to that extent…never take it out on children and need not be physical with anyone…violence begets violence…however, we should demand their positions should actually go to the brightest and best…plenty of intelligent people out there who would do their jobs for less money, also, many of those laid off at the lower end had gotten the pink slip due to circumstance of poor administrative policies set forth by the top tier…can’t comprehend the logic of why top level execs were retained…it was their poor policies and leadership that caused the giant to go into the red and innocent people had suffer the consequence. I guess this was scapegoating and besides easier to lay off those who were actually the brightest so as not to have any threats of them receiving the pink slip.

If GM, Ford, and Chrysler were made to renegotiate their contracts with the UAW, I think AIG could renegotiate their contracts. With unemployment at an all time high, I think they could hire someone that is willing to accept less money. Manufacturing companies fire people and hire someone else for a lot less pay every day. AIG should think about doing just that.

Don’t Give Me Great Executives. Give Me Lucky Executives. AIG executives should be paying us for being such losers and still having a paycheck. Many better workers are now unemployed. Who said these fat greedy slobs are “good”?

I thought the Democraps were going to stop all this Republican driven garbage.
Looks like the only thing that changed was the people in DC who are shafting us.
Hey, Obombma, can you say ‘one termer’?

Boys, boys, boys – you guys are pretty stupid. We give billions of dollars without warrants then are surprised when the one responsible for AiG keep doing things the same old way. AiG wants you to believe they are “too big to let fail”. what arrogance, and idiocracy from our new government “boys” in command. Do you really think things will change if there are not consequences? We the american people are chumps, we should demand change, but don’t seem to have the guts to follow-through, reorganize AiG under chapter 11 – fire the fCEO, ire the whole aboard and all top executives. Insurance is funny money worked around statistics, that fails when you poison the well and give them free cash. Would have been cheaper to have the government back the insured than to reward the incompetent management. Keep drinking your cool-aid.

RETAIN THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST??? Where would they go? DO they think a resume showing AIG as the last employer is a GOOD thing?? All of these people have got to get it through their heads that you do not get a bonus for BAD work. Besides, who would they sue? AIG? Its broke. The US GOvernment? Yeah right. LOL

AIG should change their name to ROA (Rape of America). Let them implode. There are other sources within the insurance world who can absorb there loss. The best way to stimulate the economy is to pass these billions of dollars out to the people.

And Attorney General Eric Holder is where?

Thank you, malfax. Wisdom is power. Your comment should be posted on the front page of every newspaper, entered onto every blog, every social networking site, handed out to every student in every high school in America.
Maybe, just maybe, real change will come.

Our Government is a joke.
They are bought and paid for by the banking industry and share holders.
Our Government does not work FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!
We need to revolutionize THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and bring her back to the PEOPLE.

AIG executives should be on bended knee apologizing to the American people for the utter mess they created. Instead, they’ve got their grimey hands out looking for millions. AT THE VERY LEAST, the names and addresses of EVERY single person getting a bonus over half a million should be posted on whitehouse.gov. These clowns need to be outed.

DOROTHY JOHNS wrote: “I voted Democrat, but agree with Republicans abou AIG. These bonuses should not be going forward. This should have been in the agreement when AIG got their first money.”
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The Republicans and Dems. fought AGAINST restricting the bonuses.
Actually, both the GOP and the Dems. agreed in the first bailout bill that they “could not” interfere with bonuses, golden parachutes, etc. that had been legally agreed to prior to the bailout bill.
Then, they told Detroit they wouldn’t get bailed out unless the UAW renegotiated a prior legally binding agreement. Which means, of course, they could have done the same thing to the bankers but chose not to shoot the hand that feeds their campaign coffers.

Of course the President has Presidential Powers to relate the bailout to his Presidential Powers in reserve. The contracts were signed before the bailout, the bailout was part of a special congressional and administration bailout, which makes any order by the President as an addendum to the bailout. The correct legal procedure is to order the bailout returned immediately while they sort it out, and re do it. Of course, Harvard genius over there can’t figure that out.

AIG should get gutted. Boot out the bums. Put government officials and economists in there to get the job down on the cheap. Then break the company up into little tiny insignificant pieces so that if any one piece fails then we don’t need to pay for $0.5 billion is bonuses and $0.2 trillion in wasted money on a company too big to fail.

The claim that the government had to let AIG pay off its bonus contracts sounds bogus. Why not demand the execs renounce the contracts before giving AIG the bailout? If the execs say they’ll quit and go elsewhere: where would they go? Who would want them?

The taxpayers now own AIG and therefore this should render previous bonus contracts that were prior to bailout invalid.

I see no fix for this problem through any conventional means. Our corrupt system will have to fall of it’s own decadent weight before there will be any opportunity for change. This is NOT going to be pretty!!!!!! If you are not preparing for some ugly consequences, you have may well live to regret it. Wake the heck up people. This is serious stuff!
Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

This AIG money is from the FIRST bailout- passed under Bush and the Republicans. they are the ones that wanted no oversight or control so get your fats straight. This is a Republican bail out for Republicans!!!

Obama will voice his outrage and say no one in the FUTURE will get bonuses in the future. I am so sick of him trying to have it both ways, EMPTY WORDS.

I just read with outrage AIG has announced this weekend (ostensibly to avoid public scrutiny) payment of $165 million in bonuses to its executives, even though it has received over $170 billion in taxpayer bailouts.
How can AIG’s Chairman (Edward Liddy) and CEO (Robert Willumstad) allow for bonuses to be paid to its executives in light of the bailouts? How could the Compensation Committees of the Board of Directors of AIG (Compensation Committee: James F. Orr III, Chairman, Stephen F. Bollenbach, Dennis D. Dammerman, Suzanne Nora Johnson, Virginia M. Rometty) possibly approve these bonuses? What were they thinking? It is morally indefensible that bonuses to any executive of any company that has been bailed out to be paid – particularly AIG. Where’s the sense of moral outrage? Where are the values and sense of right and wrong of these people? Where’s the leadership?
Every executive bonus plan that I’ve read includes in small print deep in the Plan Document a phrase that reads something as follows: subject to approval by the Compensation Committee. The payment of bonuses and incentive compensation is discretionary. CEOs recommend to their Chairman and Compensation Committee the payment of bonuses. So where is the backbone of the CEOs, Chairmen and Directors to just say no? How can this happen?
The real villains are the CEOs and top teams of AIG and other bailed out companies and their gutless boards that fail to show leadership and just say no to the approval of these bonuses. These actions are self-serving, unconscionable, further erode the confidence of Americans in “the system” and only enrich the participants at the expense of us all.
Chuck Bolton
http://chuckbolton.wordpress.com/

The true outrage is the ignorance of the middle-class in this country embracing inefficient laws that instituted these criminals. Today’s depression is a direct result of 20 years of deregulation and lobbying authorized by our Congress. Then there’s Oakley-Sarbanes – what a joke. The average American bought it lock stock and barrel, and many remain under the spells of these trickle-down theorists. Like addicted criminals, AIG’s empathies for their clients are numbed by greedy profit margins, and their twisted lifestyles are causing delusions that refuse to accept reality: Capitalism is now for those whom produce, rather than scheme.

BONUS PAYMENTS AT AIG
This is not just outrageous, it borders on criminal! The entire banking system has been corrupted. The managers have stolen our money and then fleed their companies. These bonus contracts should never have been allowed. The owners (US government) should now decide which employees are to retained and which to let go. Those workers who choose to accept their bonus should be at risk of losing their job.
WERE DID THE MONEY GO
The money that the government has given to AIG has just been used to buy some of the toxic assets from other banks at full price. AIG/Government now owns these assets. The money given to the banks have been used to fill the hole in capital reserves. The banks need these reserves to legally lend money.
Here is the problem in a nutshell. Toxic assets consist of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) and Credit Default Swaps (CDS) that “insure” the MDS, The value of MBS has declined because the housing prices have declined. The method (math formula) of pricing the CDS falsely assumed that country wide average housing price would never decrease thus drastically inflating the CDS price. The result is that the old formula no longer works and no acceptable replacement formula has been developed. Any new pricing scheme will mean short term paper losses in the trillions of dollars.
HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS.
The actions of the federal reserve and the congress have bought us time to fix the banking problem. A new formula for pricing CDS will be developed shortly and used to price new MBS and CDS. that don’t include subprime loans. This formula will also allow the old CDS to be sold at a fair price and remove them from the banks assets. If there are fewer foreclosures the CDS losses will be minimal. These actions will solve the immediate problem and allow the banks to get back into the business of making sound loans. Business will then improve and the stock market will come roaring back.
THE FUTURE
More regulation of the entire world financial and banking system must be instituted to prevent such catastrophes from ever happening again. First, corporate entities anywhere in the world that are too big to fail should be reduced in size and new ones be prevented from being created. Second, the MBS rating system should be fixed to result in more realistic ratings (e.g. let the buyers instead of the sellers pay for the ratings). This will prevent a sub-prime MBS being falsely rated AAA and sold to pension funds. Third, CDS should be regulated as insurance products and require the setting aside reserves in case of defaults. Holders of the CDS should be require to have a stake in insured assets. (No more gambling with the world’s finances). And fourth, Corporate rules should be changed to prevent them from entering into these insane bonus contracts and golden parachutes that have no clear economic benefit to the share holders.
Well, I got that off my chest.

Do you understand what a CDS is? It is an asset for the holder and a liability for the seller. If the asset is worth $10 million to the buyer, the liability to AIG is $10 million. The problem is, the holder showed it as an asset, while AIG did not show it as a liability.

You braindead Obama worshippers keep defending him over this. If he can get away with it with your blind support, he will keep doing the same. You should be flooding the White House with phone calls, emails, and faxes demanding that the bailouts are stopped dead.

Is anyone else sick of hearing the Democrats claim that it wasn’t their fault and they can’t do anything about it? They have been in charge of Congress since January 2007 and now have the White House. It’s time to step up or step down. The government owns 80% of AIG and there’s nothing that can be done? Let those cockroaches sue and we’ll see if any jury awards them the bonuses that they didn’t earn.

If you’re not OUTRAGED about this AIG BS, you should be. AIG…”best and brightest”…now there’s an oxymoron if I ever saw one. I say let these bastards go down in flames…it’s called “consequences”. These companies should be held to the same standards the taxpayers are…we don’t get any bailouts…why should they?!? The administration should: 1) get the money back, 2) let them fall flat on their faces.
Those who make bad financial decisions need to learn to live with the consequences. Just where do these EXEC’s get off thinking it’s OK to get a bonus for driving the company into the ground?! Bonuses are for a job WELL DONE. Clue: This not one of them!

What Contracts ? Is is mentioned in the contract that in case the company goes bankrupt, they will bowwor tax payer money to pay bonus.
See, bonus means – sharing company’s profit with employees. So , if the compnay is in loss — how can they pay bonus and where from.
These are all hypocrites , they are criminasl and they are used to it , they dont care.
They may have degrees from Good Institute but definitely they dont have ethics.
Ethics is also very important.
These so called Well educated Executives should be kicked out.

How can we say that AIG have the Best and the Brightest employees
If it is the case , how it screwed up itself.

You’re sick schlockma.

AIG SHOULD HAVE NEVER GOTTEN THE BAILOUT MONEY IF THAT WAS IN THE CEO’S CONTRACT’S
WHY DIDNT THE FEDRAL GOVERNMENT CHECK IT OUT FIRST?
PRESIDENT OBAMA DO NOT GIVE ANYMORE OF MY TAX MONEY TO AIG LET IT FALL!
TOO THE AMERCIAN PEOPLE STOP YOUR PAYMENTS TOO YOUR AIG ACCOUNTS……LET YOU VOICE BE HEARD. WE THE PEOPLE CAN STOP THEM!!!!!!!!IF WE STAND TOGETHER WE CAN CHANGE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA……

Ignorance of the law is no excuse accept for those who make the laws an excuse.
So why are our current lawmakers so upset by what they themselves created or conveniently forgot to establish? They created the bail-out…they created the criteria and voted for it…”We the People” had no rights, other then not being able to stop this. To say they were unaware of the consequence of their own demise is absolute insanity. They knew exactly the words to use and the words to exclude when releasing their bail-out plans. Out of a good mans heart comes good treasure…out of a greedy mans heart comes greed and deceipt..

It amazes me that the stimulus money going to states and local governments appear to have miles of strings attached but these bozos hand over this money to private companies without any preconditions? Where the hell do we find these people we keep electing?

Larry Sumers :
We are a country of law. There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts. Every legal step possible to limit those bonuses is being taken by Secretary Geithner and by the Federal Reserve system.
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The absurdity of the Obama administration demonstrated so very nicely!
“There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts.”
Oh, REALLY……
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Feb 18th – Obmaa revealed plans to aid home owners
Reforming bankruptcy rules to allow a judge to reduce the principal owed on the mortgage for a primary residence. Current bankruptcy laws exempt the mortgage on a person’s primary residence from rules allowing debts to be written down.