Obama to Geithner Try To Block AIG Bonuses

Here's an idea....

Let them give the bonuses.

Then pass a special tax on Bonus compensation for all the companies that received bailout money.

This is the government's fault. All they did was take 79.9% equity. This does not give them the power to just void contracts.

According to Judge Napalatano(sp?) on Fox this morning, its actually in WRITING in the legislation or documents that AIG agreed to when accepting funds, that they WOULD be allowed to honor those bonus contracts. So are we talking about voiding the contracts that AIG has with its employees, or the contract that the government knowingly entered into when giving AIG the money??

Some governments, Mexico for one, will not allow a corporation to operate within their borders if it is 80% or more owned by a foreign government.

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Obama to Geithner Try To Block AIG Bonuses

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They already gave them the bonuses.

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I was saying, why try to block the bonuses when you can just tax the shite out of them.

The plot thickens...One guy got a $4.6 Million bonus and doesn't work for AIG any longer!

'The NYT reports:

Seventy-three employees were paid more than $1 million in the newly minted bonuses at the insurance giant, American International Group, according to the New York attorney general Andrew M. Cuomo.

The attorney general provided some new details on Tuesday about some of the $160 million in bonuses that the insurance giant paid out last week in a letter sent to Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services.

Mr. Cuomo did not name the recipients of bonuses, but said one employee received more than $6.4 million. The top seven received more than $4 million each, and the top 10 received a combined $42 million. Eleven of those who received “retention” bonuses of $1 million or more are no longer working at A.I.G., including one who received $4.6 million, he said. (emphasis added)

This story gets more and more interesting. Bloomberg is reporting that:

“American International Group Inc., the insurer under fire for handing out bonuses after its $173 billion government bailout, budgeted $57 million in “retention” pay for employees who will be dismissed.”

AIG disclosed the payments, part of a larger $1 billion program meant to retain staff, in a March 2 filing. The insurer was chastised yesterday by President Barack Obama for awarding $165 million to staff of the derivatives unit blamed for the firm’s near collapse, and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he’ll subpoena AIG to get details on those payments. (emphasis added)

Right now my long pitchforks and torches trade is looking pretty sweet!'

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Talking out of Both Sides of their Mouth

Oh Snap!

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Though Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is among those leading the charge on retrieving the bonuses, an amendment he added to the $787 billion stimulus bill last month created a roadblock to getting that money back. The amendment, meant to restrict executive pay for bailed-out banks, also included an exception for "contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009."

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Off the subject, but Dodd is the poster boy for "Rich, Old, White, Fat Man:"

I hold no big time politician in high regard. I cannot imagine committing to such a vocation at the national level or even the state level. They are engaged in the struggle for power, even if they don't know it. Each person needs some money to provide themselves and their family with a home, food, education, medical care, basic transportation. Beyond that is excess and trinkets/toys that consume time that we could be pursuing what really makes each of us happy.

Many people work and strive their entire lives and never figure out that more toys/trinkets, accompanied by more monthly payments with interest, are not what is going to make them happy. People get on a treadmill like a hampster and never get off till they are forced to retire or die. They have never enen stopped to consider for a day a week or a year what it is that will make them content...iow, they have lived but they haven't lived. It is sad.