House Democrats' Talking Points on AIG
House Democratic leaders send out a daily list of talking points on the biggest stories in the capital, and today's memo mentions the burgeoning scandal over AIG's retention bonuses:
As a result of contracts entered into before government rescue funds were approved last year -- so before limits were in place -- AIG has paid out $165 million in bonuses to top executives.AIG has committed to Treasury that they will look how to repay taxpayers for the retention payments.
A House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on Wednesday morning will look into problems at AIG.
That's all true ... but the reality of the situation goes deeper than this week's $165 million. It's not even clear that AIG's 2009 retention bonuses would be affected by the executive compensation limits that were added to the economic stimulus law.
Those limits don't apply to pay arrangements negotiated before last month, and it appears that AIG has already inked agreements on some of its 2009 incentive payments.
Josh
Elana
Matt
Eric
AIG needs to be put into receivership.
It may be that regular BK won't do the trick. A custom-crafted structured BK bill just for AIG might be what's called for. (I wonder how complicated that would have to be and how long it would take to pass Congress?)
Alternatively, don't we own a majority stake in AIG by now. We've certainly put more money in there than they're worth. Call a shareholders' meeting and just vote the bastards out!
March 16, 2009 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
The American people need to start coming up with some talking points, like "throw the bums out". That talking point could prove quite useful in the months ahead.
March 16, 2009 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's some use talking points re:AIG and bonus payouts:
1. Tar.
2. Feather.
3. Wooden rail.
4. Repeat as necessary.
March 16, 2009 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
What bothers me about the AIG bonuses story is how polarized it is.
Bonuses are paid as rewards whether in good times or bad times. I seem to recall that AIG stopped writing problematic CDS deals some years ago. So, are the people being paid extra to stay doing a good job of cost containment on the losses created by earlier people or policies?
0.1% of a loss seems to me to be a small price to pay to try to clean up a problem. Just how egregious are these retention bonuses? How much bonus to how many people who have how good opportunities elsewhere? When a company I worked for closed down our operations to consolidate production with headquarters, most employees got a retention deal.
How many people are misdirecting their emotions at AIG based on BAC and Merrill Lynch bonuses which were huge by comparison (both in $ and % of taxpayer commitments so far)?
March 16, 2009 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why is Obama whining about AIG? The government gets back 40% of the AIG bonuses and if anyone cared about tax money they would of tried to save a little of it last week! If anyone deserves a bonus now it is AIG, they have to deal with a loud mouth double dipping "partner" that hasn't showed up for a day of work and can't even balance his own check book!
March 16, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink