Hey remember just like a couple months ago when everybody was so angry over the AIG bonuses? Get ready to be outraged all over again because duh, of course a whole bunch of people knew these bonuses were going to be awarded and they did nothing to stop it because they were too busy saving the whole financial system from ruin. Bad PR move!
This is all the fault of the New York Fed, which is apparently staffed by knuckleheads who cannot comprehend what an insurance company does:
After the initial $85 billion federal bailout of AIG in September, the New York Fed, which is accustomed to dealing with banks, struggled to understand a complex global insurance company.
“They really didn’t know us at all,” said one AIG executive, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “We had a real education process with them. They were asking us questions on a gazillion different issues.”
But! They were not such knuckleheads that they didn’t see look at AIG FP’s bonus structure and ask in a September 29 meeting, “What is up with these huge bonuses for the people who ruined everything?” But, throughout the fall and winter, New York Fed officials were too busy trying to save this massive pile of fail to worry too much about a couple hundred bonuses to some losers in some obscure division of this very complicated insurance company.
By January, lawmakers were asking questions and …
“Did we think people were not going to like this? Sure,” an AIG executive said. “But did we think it was going to be the Armageddon of compensation? No, we didn’t.”
And then eventually in February somebody bothered to email the Fed in Washington and say “Oh by the way a huge pile of shit is about to land on your desk, kthxbye.”
We all know what happened next: all of those AIG bonus-winners were skinned alive in the public square, we feasted on their flesh, and then we deported them for being anti-American. Nobody could take away their bonuses, though, because of contracts.
Officials Knew of AIG Bonuses Months Before Firestorm [Washington Post]
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Well, that seems fair. We should give Chimpy a bump in his pension, too, to reward him for the great job he did in fucking up the country in ways we’re only just beginning to discover.
They all missed the fine print where it said “Everyone gets extra monies if they manage to bring down the world’s economy”. You’ve gots to READ these things people!
Unlike labor’s contracts (especially UAW) which are about to “abrogated” which is lawyer speak for “round filed”.
TEABAGG THEM!!!!
Too busy? Isn’t a basic component of saving a company from bankruptcy cutting costs wherever possible, even for bonuses?
“massive pile of fail” is such a great expression. And so universally applicable. Sigh.
[re=315488]OReillysVibrator[/re]:
Based on my current experience with bankrupt employer. No.
So how come Manchester United keeps on winning with those infamous letters on their shirts?
[re=315483]Scottie[/re]: I been abrogated too. And not even a kiss after,
I’ll repay my bonus when you claw it back from my cold, dead, doughy, manicured hands.
You know, I these are reasonable men, not some kind of inhuman monsters, if we would just impale a couple dozen of the senior Vice Presidents outside the insurance companies main entrance, I’m pretty sure the rest of them would be encouraged to see reason.
I’ve probably saved my employer hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several years. Can I at least hit one of these bonus-earning shitbirds upside the head with my nine-pound cast-iron skillet?
“But did we think it was going to be the Armageddon of compensation? No, we didn’t.” With such sage foresight, it’s amazing they missed the whole impending financial meltdown they created.
One could argue that they deserve the bonuses as it’s not as if your average Jack or Jill could fail so spectacularly. It takes a special kind of business acumen.
[re=315488]OReillysVibrator[/re]: Of course they always look at cutting labor costs, including bonuses, from the rank-and-file employees. But it would simply be unthinkable to even consider cutting executive compensation! What do you think these companies are, communists?
Uhh, we heard alot of “AIG was too big to fail”, it looks more and more like what was more the truth was that they were TOO DUMB TO FAIL, which of course means that they should have been allowed to fail, honestly, if your insurance company sent a letter telling you that they were about to go tits up……….wouldnt you just go to another insurance company? Duh!
Geither = Epic fail. Hopey only keeps him around because he may need someone to toss under the bus soon for the entire financial debacle.
I too got a bonus; it was a 15 cent off coupon for 8 packs of Ramen on the pack of Ramen that I just bought.
[re=315519]WoodsboyAK[/re]: Insurance has certainly come a long way. They used to talk about being there when you had problems — but apparently there’s more money in being part of the problem.
Worse yet: lots of fat cats bought insurance from AIG against their (GM, for example) bonds going valueless. So if they accept a workout with Hopey and Fivehead that gives them, say 33 percent payout on the bad bonds, that’s a worse deal than just letting GM go bankrupt.
Oh yeah, millions of jobs in the dumper, whole economy of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana dying…that shit doesn’t matter. I want AIG to pay me off!
See, this is why capitalism is such a great system. A rising tide lifts all the boats. A falling tide beaches the rowboats, while the yachts just sail away to Bimini. You got a problem with that?
speaking of ny fed, here’s some of my bailout-themed artwork:
http://image.blingee.com/images16/content/output/000/000/000/565/444908973_1924450.gif
i read this and as a conservative, I’m compelled to dress up like a minuteman, hold “NOBAMA IS A FASCIST” sign, cry, then teabag myself.
[re=315530]El Pinche[/re]: That shit RULEZ!
[re=315523]SayItWithWookies[/re]: and AIG shoveling money out the back door to GS, Douche Bank, UBS, Shittybank et al.
These are the finance schools all the NY FEd guys graduated from, so its all in the family.
Incest is best, as they say.
[re=315518]JMP[/re]: The workers should actually be grateful that executives get such bonuses because if there weren’t any bonuses, companies wouldn’t be able to hire the best and brightest and without the best and brightest to run the companies, workers wouldn’t even have crummy, low-paying jobs with crappy health care and no pensions. Therefore, the more executives make, the more jobs that will be created. Unions should not only wish their executives to get thoses bonuses, but should hand over some of their salaries to increase the bonuses they already get.
[re=315517]Hooray For Anything[/re]: This is true. It’s the scale of fail.
[re=315532]SmutBoffin[/re]: thx. geithner emo was my inspiration.
So, you’re saying the people who “ruined everything” got “bonuses”? Actually, those people got unemployed pretty quick. With the boat sinking and everyone else planning to jump ship, the company entered retention agreements with the people they thought they needed to keep around to save that sinking pile of shit. Can you imagine how much worse the situation would have been had those people left? No, I don’t suppose you got that far – not your field after all.
One other thing. The $85 billion that was sent to AIG wasn’t intended to bail out AIG. In fact, it didn’t sit in their accounts for more than a day. Instead, it was almost immediately sent to Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and some European banks, all of which paid out billions in actual “bonuses” (i.e., merit-based, discretionary payments as opposed to the contractual obligations of AIG).
Sorry for the reality check. It’s just painful to see you people ranting about something you clearly don’t understand like, well, K-Lo for instance.
[re=315596]Hooray For Anything[/re]: True; how dare the workers not properly appreciate their betters. Why, look at those ungrateful Chrysler unions, actually suggesting that the company’s pension and health insurance obligations should come before the money owed to the hedge funds, without which no one anywhere would have a job.
I thought the “Armageddon of compensation” was Rush’s cigar. Hey-yo!
It’s going to be a tough call on Federal Department of the Year — is it the Reserve for ignoring the AIG bonuses, or is it the super-fine Sherlock Holmes job the SEC did of investigating Bernie Madoff? Vegas oddsmakers are going to stay up late handicapping that contest.
[re=315630]SlouchingTowardsWasilla[/re]: Name one person who lost their job (got fired pretty quick) from AIG., m’k?
cause even though they shoveled money out the back door, they kept a lot of it since they had some parties goin’ on and they all had to keep going.
And they are asking for more all the time…
[re=315722]sati demise[/re]: Joseph Cassano, who ran the credit default swaps out of the London subsidiary, was “asked” to retire in April 2008.
[re=315915]SlouchingTowardsWasilla[/re]: Bad example. Cassano was sort of fired, but kept on as a consultant at $1million/month after being ‘fired.’ Plus he was the top man. One man. Which does not prove your earlier assertions, even if you count being given a million a month as being fired.
[re=316157]hobospacejunkie[/re]: But the guy only pocketed nearly a third of a billion dollars. He can hardly get a pair of diamond TruckNutz for his chauffeured Bentley on that kind of scratch.
If anyone knows about any bonuses I am due to receive in the next 6-18 months, I would appreciate knowing about it now for tax “efficiency” purposes.
[re=315530]El Pinche[/re]: Next time will you please give that poor dude some eyebrows?
[re=316157]hobospacejunkie[/re]: That agreement was revoked. And sati asked for one example. There are others inclduing the CEO Robert Willumstad.
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