Comments on: AIG: The Bad News Bailout

By: MarkH

MarkH — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:49:17 +0000

I sense absolutely NO trust at all in Obama and his administration from this discussion.

Why did you even bother to vote for him if you’re just going to attack him like Republicans?

By: robspierre

robspierre — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:53:49 +0000

I was less shocked by the foreign banks than by the DOMESTIC banks that are also beneficiaries of Congressional largesse in their own right. Double-dipping? When all the dust settles, how much of the total paid out to myriad entities via complicated transactions will turn out to benefit only two or three of the players?

By: earlofhuntingdon

earlofhuntingdon — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:02:23 +0000

And kudos to the image-master who told it like it is: AIG is Enron, only bigger, nastier and dirtier.

Its managers weren’t laughing about bankrupting grandmothers in California because of artificially and illegally high utility bills. They were bankrupting whole economies because they built one house of cards atop another.

By: earlofhuntingdon

earlofhuntingdon — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:00:17 +0000

I did, I agree, it’s brinksmanship and blackmail. Time to call them on it. The taxpayer is paying the full tab anyway; no reason to make these rapacious managers richer in the process.

By: timr

timr — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:47:41 +0000

I still have a question. Didn’t anyone in AIG do anything illegal? Fraud? Anything??
Are any of the banks and other organizations-like AIG-being investigated for any criminal activity? If not, why? Why no arrests?
Have any of the MOTU-Masters Of The Universe-been fired? Laid off?
Why havn’t they just told those idiots who are getting all that bonus money that they are not getting their bonus. What could they do?-Q. For what reason are they getting these contractual bonuses? There have to be terms given, no? I mean the contracts can’t just say we have to give X$$ bonus every year no matter what your performance is, do they??? If the company loses 500Billion $$ because of your actions, do you still get a bonus? Why???
Arn’t bonuses tied to company performance? I know that boards still hand out stock and bonuese to CEOs even when company performance is in the toilet, but to ordinary workers? Why do they need an incentive just to do their job?

By: oldtree

oldtree — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:40:50 +0000

What does it tell us when none of the people working in the banking industry can be trusted? It might indicate you put other people on the job. But they don’t seem willing to put people that are otherwise competent into positions supervising the banks. Why? Would it not be a wise idea to have a grownup that understands profit and loss, instead of the people that can tell you only that profit means loss?

By: greenwarrior

greenwarrior — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:28:41 +0000

here in texas we also have deer “hunting”. put up a camouflaged shelter (aka a deer blind) where you watch for deer with your loaded gun. then set out deer feed and wait. they call it deer hunting.

By: Petrocelli

Petrocelli — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:25:46 +0000

In all fairness though, the recoil could have shaken Chin-ee’s Pacemaker, so there was some risk. /s

By: Petrocelli

Petrocelli — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:24:33 +0000

The Best and The Brightest … kinda like the team Bush put together …

By: Hugh

Hugh — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:23:45 +0000

No, I don’t think either I or Black believe Treasury was interested in pursuing aggressively the best way of dealing with AIG. The point is that, as has been the case throughout all of this, there have always been good sensible ways of avoiding these problems or addressing them at each and every stage. Even as the situation has worsened because workable solutions have not been pursued there have always remained other good approaches to the next level of problems. When we truly crash and burn it will be because our leaders consistently turned their back on what would work to prop up a corrupt and failed system even as they denied it was either corrupt or failed.