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It's nice to know that as Americans struggle with unemployment and lack of health insurance, at least one worthy group of lads are doing well!

American International Group is preparing to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to several dozen top corporate executives after an earlier round of payments four months ago set off a national furor.

The troubled insurance giant has been pressing the federal government to bless the payments in hopes of shielding itself from renewed public outrage.

Uh, hon? We don't care if the Pope himself blesses you. We're not going to be happy about this. Nope.

The request puts the administration's new compensation czar on the spot by seeking his opinion about bonuses that were promised long before he took his post.

AIG_b6de1.jpg

AIG doesn't actually need the permission of Kenneth R. Feinberg, who President Obama appointed last month to oversee the compensation of top executives at seven firms that have received large federal bailouts. But officials at AIG, whose federal rescue package stands at $180 billion, have been reluctant to move forward without political cover from the government.

"Anytime we write a check to anybody" it is highly scrutinized, said an AIG official, who declined to speak on the record because the negotiations with Feinberg are ongoing. "We would want to feel comfortable that the government is comfortable with what we are doing."

I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling all that comfortable with this.

The payments coming due next week include $2.4 million in bonuses for about 40 high-ranking executives at AIG, according to administration documents from earlier this year. Though the actual sum may have changed since then, the payments are much smaller than those that caused the upheaval in March.

To those of us who are lucky enough that they're still employed, I'll bet they're thinking about that past ten years of one- and two-percent raises, wondering how to get on that magical merry-go-round. Dream on!

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48 Comments
Clavis's picture

Stop being so mean to very rich people. After all, if they don't exploit us all to maximize shareholder profits and strangle our democracy, who will?

Liberalicious's picture

Leave AIG alone!!!!!!
;)

savannah43's picture

Do not defy God.

Ryoko's picture

I have an idea: Seize their policies and auction them off on the open market then dissolve the company leaving the rats infesting the management to eat shit.

xhanay's picture

Rich people suck...I'm the most qualified person to run AIG to the ground, so why don't they hire me? I will make them go bankrupt faster than the stupid A-holes that are working there right now.

Liberalicious's picture

Hon, why do you think Obama is seeing the pope today?

;)

Shadowgm's picture

... hit Timmy Geithner in the head with a sock full of pennies.

Oh, and guess what, conservaturds!?!? AIG is the 'private industry' you claim giving money to will fix everything.

savannah43's picture

I want my money back today. From all of these people.

AngryGus's picture

!


Cue the Kabuki....

Shadowgm's picture

Lay the rope out in an 's' with extra length at the top. The top of the 's' will wind around the bottom to form the knot; the bottom curve of the 's' becomes the loop of the noose itself.

Wind the rope around the middle and lower parts of the 's', taking care to keep the turns reasonably tight. The loose end is tucked through the opening between the winding and the first curve of the 's,' then cinched tight by pulling on the loop.

pinkobait's picture

gimme an R gimme an E gimme a V gimme an O gimme gimme an L gimme a U gimme a T gimme an I gimme an O gimme an N.
watta ya get?
The last tick of a time bomb.


"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "

-Jack Handy

AngryGus's picture

for a while now


Cue the Kabuki....

Tax the Rich's picture

These psycho's will never stop, until somebody stops them.


If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.

liberalNmoderation's picture

These fascist SOB's must be stopped.
But if go into the how, I'll get deleted.

JohnnyBravo's picture

Someone has to shut them down. Or let them self destruct.


NOBODY 2012

offog's picture

From NoGWBpolicyleft: "These psycho's will never stop, until somebody stops them."

"Psychos" might just be an accurate description. I remember a news report that came out a few years ago. Someone had done a study which showed that a lot of corporate executives had sociopathic personality traits. (If anyone out there remembers that study and some more details, please jump in.)

Yeah, I think there's something to that study. Ever read business/conservative viewpoint material? It's pretty scary stuff. It has this whole law of the jungle vibe to it - cut-throat competition, anything to get ahead and stay ahead, anything to show how tough you are, avoid showing weakness at all costs, compassion is for wimps and losers. (Compassionate conservatism is when they make the streets safer before they throw you out into them.)

If people going to business school get indoctrinated with this mentality, it sure would explain a lot.

Bitter Bud Hussein's picture

I'm serious - what is the goddamn point anymore? We fight, we argue, we protest and not one goddamn thing changes.

I am at a really low fucking point right now - what is the damn point...


Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.

Tyler Durden's picture

... incorporate yourself as a bank. And ask for some of the funny money.

Use their system... that is what I am thinking about doing.

savannah43's picture

These help me. So do fantasies of revenge.

Tyler Durden's picture

... these are the same group of assholes that want to know what you grandma was doing in her 30s before you can apply for a loan or get insured. But don't understand why the government would want oversight on billions of dollars "given" to them.

Samson-'s picture

“The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) originally limited the amount of tax deductible compensation payable to each senior executive of financial institutions participating in the TARP to $500,000 for as long as the US government holds an equity or debt position in the entity,” explains Richard Reilly, a partner at Baker & McKenzie. “The EESA also prohibited new employment contracts that provide for golden parachute payments upon involuntary termination, bankruptcy filing or receivership, and imposed tax deduction limits and tax penalties on certain golden parachute and severance payments,” he adds.

http://www.financierworldwide.com/article.php...

"Secretary Geithner also clarified that the Government will not be not capping pay or setting precise prescriptions for how companies should set compensation"

so, these fuckwads can get their bonuses b/c they are less than 500k? not only shouldn't they get a dime, they should be unemployed and on trial for their part in the theft of billions of dollars.

Tax the Rich's picture

Little Timmy fuckwad, and Larry the derivatives guy should be on trial with them!

Mr. President, your economic team sucks! Do you think FDR would have hired insider dickheads like this to fix the economy during the first republican great depression?


If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.

pinkobait's picture

Didn't that use to be on after Sesame Street?


"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "

-Jack Handy

Tyler Durden's picture

... that even though these bail outs were passed mostly under the Bush admin. The GOP will squarely blame all this on the Dems, as proof of their anti-capitalist attitude by using public funds to bail out private enterprises that were less than optimal.

For being a group of supposedly such smooth political operators, this Obama admin seems to be constantly the ones left out without a chair every time the music stops....

Tax the Rich's picture

I am beginnig to think that history will view Obama as a miserable failure.

After eight years of the most RADICAL, reactionary, rightwing fascist government in history, the last thing we need is moderation/centrism.

We are at a crossroads in our history. And for the first time, I get the feeling America is not going to come out of this a better country.

If not, I blame Obama! He had the opportunity, and he let the psycho's in the GOP and DLC who caused this clusterfuck, to continue dragging the rest of us down this path of disaster.

What is going on right now in this administration, is the stuff I expected from a Hillary presidency - which is why I voted for Obama. Then he went out and elected all of the republican-lite Clinton flunkies as his top advisors.

If a REAL democrat (FDR anti-corporate fascist type)runs against Obama in 2012, I think he would have a decent shot! I would support them.


If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.

..with the bathwater but I have to agree. Its still only 7 months in but change requires decisions to NOT do things the way they were done.


Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"

outside the box. Remember, that due to his family background, he was a corporate shill himself at the beginning. But he was smart enough to realize that positive populism that benefits most people would provide more votes than any other option. Period, that is why he was re-elected until he died.

If Obama was truly the political visionary he was billed to be, he could simply pass universal health care. Any party in the industrialized world which has passed a successful populist health care/economic reform in their respective countries has been rewarded with the loyalty of the majority of the voters (until they screw up obviously). He doesn't even have to fix all the fires left by the Bush admin.

But if he does not do that, he will simply be left as another 1-termer to be made fun of for subsequent decades/generations. See, Carter. Heck, he may be so toxic that another Bush may even have a go in 2012. And the fact that he has done a piss poor job at even trying to pretend to be building a firewall between his admin and the Bush policies/f*ck ups... leads me to believe he is not that bright guy, and that he must have won by default. Because, one has to be very very very dumb to be stuck with the blame for Bush's f*ck ups. And unless he does something real soon about that, I am afraid the GOP is going to successfully pin their f*ck ups on this poor fella.

I am willing to be proven wrong, but so far Obama is simply trying to be everything to everyone. Except for him "everyone" means anyone on the center-right. It is very early in his firs term, but the problem is that I don't see any indication that Obama has got "it" yet. In his battery of proposals, so far, there is not a single one which I could consider slightly creative, or that I could read as an indication that he is trying anything at all outside the box.

The problem, is that I find myself giving him yet another arbitrary dead line to prove me wrong in my estimation of him...

savannah43's picture

It's part of having character.

with the Merriam Webster's definition of the word "Change."

Even though most economists knew that the first one was too small, and too much of it went to tax cuts. Forget about anything that is going to help average Americans.

Here is Hannity totally manipulating information to fit his agenda. Watch!!!

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2112

Mike V.'s picture

but what the fuck are the bonuses actually FOR?
(pardon the grammar)
I mean, in general, I don't have a problem with companies paying bonuses to anyone if:
they are making money for stockholders.
they are paying bonuses and/or giving the employees money for the company doing well.
what the fuck?

surfjac's picture

..here's my best impression of Donald Trump:
YOU'RE FIRED!
What has AIG done for America lately? Nothing
That's what we owe the executives NOTHING. Its about time someone started working for us instead of against us. Why did we all bother to vote for change? I'm still getting screwed and I can't afford to move into the jungle, dammit!


Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"

ysbaddaden's picture
)O(

Diabolus est Deus Inversus

CFAmick's picture

that Bernie Madoff ripped off taxpayers for 2.3 trillion dollars. I can't help but wonder if he has innocently mixed up his facts, or, if his source of news has not so innocently given folks the idea that our economic woes are the fault of one man, and not a failed system.

Tax the Rich's picture

He must be thinking of George Bush and his tax rip-off for the super wealthy.


If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.

Evet's picture

. . nothing. Everyone else has debt, you never lose that.

The big Boyz? Hey Obama will bail ya out! How much cash ya need!

Lizzy Bennet's picture

These jerks should be locked up in Soledad or Rikers, not getting a bonus. People can't find jobs and are losing them left and right, yet some AIG asshole can get at least 16 people's annual wages (if we use $30k as the annual wage) as a fucking bonus? 16 people, per bonus recipient, could be working, not at a great wage but at least having a job, if these jackholes weren't getting their precious bonus. I feel like the AIG executives, hell let's just include Wall Street, are Gollum chasing their precious at all costs.

Tax the Rich's picture

But didn't you know? Their the best and the brightest!


If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.

Tyler Durden's picture

.

Able to create and implement a quasi-legal ponzi scheme at the taxpayers expense.

liberalNmoderation's picture

FAH!
Gitmo!
PLENTY OF ROOM there.

*High Five*


NOBODY 2012

Blue Lensman's picture

I too am lucky enough to still be employed. After years of "raises" that did not even keep up with the rising cost of living, we've been told there will be no raises and no bonuses . . indefinitely.

And we haven't screwed anyone over or even gone into the red!

[end of rant - I'll go back to my dog food now]

Mugsy's picture

Thursday, AIG's stock lost nearly 25% of it's already low value, falling below the $10 a share mark.

Reason? Reports that AIG may not be able to repay its gov loan because UK debt is pushing their total asssts down to zero.

Time for bonuses!


* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.

all hail the hypno toad's picture

This will cause another round of "if you don't bail us out, the economy will FAIL [thunder in background], now gimme".

-Bricked-'s picture

They come from the same pile of filth as Communist Party commissars.

AIG = Big middle finger to America.

Too Big To Exist. Let them fail.


NOBODY 2012

Kreskin's picture

Well folks , assume your customary positions , bend over , pucker up and smile because nothing has changed and it's likely that nothing will change . Wall street , the lobbyists and big money own DC and the whores we keep re-electing .


Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .

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