3/18/09

Designer Outrage

There are many, many stories in the media about AIG and the stinking bonuses. Are you upset yet? You're supposed to be. Yes it is outrageous. But don't take these clowns seriously, the congressional clowns and the media clowns, because they didn't do their jobs for you when it mattered. They're only making confetti over this for a reason, like maybe to suggest that you should riot or something. I'm just guessing. Thank goodness for the Washington Post (via Pimpin Turtle). We can always count on them to lay the CIA psyops playbook on the table and open it to the right page. Now follow along...

AIG hires renta-cops to protect bankers against "mob effect"

A tidal wave of public outrage
over bonus payments swamped American International Group yesterday. Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products, the division whose exotic derivatives brought the insurance giant to the brink of collapse last year. Inside, death threats and angry letters flooded e-mail inboxes. Irate callers lit up the phone lines. Senior managers submitted their resignations. Some employees didn’t show up at all. [My God you people are animals.]

“It’s a mob effect,” one senior [anonymous] executive said. “It’s putting people’s lives in danger.” [Mmm hmm.]

Politicians and the public [All together now.] spent yesterday demanding that AIG rescind payouts that they said rewarded recklessness and greed at a company being bailed out with $170 billion in taxpayer funds. But company officials contend that the uproar is scaring away the very employees who understand AIG Financial Products’ complex trades and who are trying to dismantle the division before it further endangers the world’s economy.

“It’s going to blow up,” said a senior Financial Products manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. “I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly.”

President Obama yesterday vowed to “pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses.” But that pledge might have come too late. [Regrettable.] About $165 million in retention payments started to go out Friday to employees at Financial Products, after numerous discussions with the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. Attorneys working for the Fed had been examining the matter for months and determined that the retention payments couldn’t be touched because AIG would face costly lawsuits and be subject to penalties from states and foreign governments. [And Oh My God We Can't Have That!!!] Administration officials said over the weekend that they agreed with that assessment. [Hey thanks, you're a real pal.]

AIG disclosed its retention-payment program more than a year ago, [When none of this was foreseen (cough).] and the amount of the bonuses — more than $400 million for Financial Products alone — had been widely reported. But as the payments were coming due in recent days, the White House began to express its indignation. Pressure on the 370-person Financial Products unit, based primarily in Connecticut and London, grew even more intense yesterday when New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo threatened to issue subpoenas if the company failed to provide details about recipients of the retention payments. [Yeah? And what happened?]

The payments represent only the most contentious of a larger group of bonuses being paid throughout AIG. The company’s top seven officials, including chief executive Edward M. Liddy, agreed in November to forgo bonuses through this year. After a Wednesday call between Liddy and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, AIG agreed to restructure payments for the next 43 highest-ranking officers at the company, who are to receive half of their bonuses — which total $9.6 million — immediately, one-quarter July 15 and the rest Sept. 15. The last two payments would depend on whether the company makes progress in restructuring its business and paying back taxpayers. In addition, the company is set to pay another $600 million in retention awards to about 4,700 people throughout its global insurance units. [Look how reasonable and selfless they're being. Come on! Have a heart.]

But each dollar remains in question after the president’s reprimand yesterday and the deluge of rage from legislators and the American public. Government leaders [snort] already say they plan to recoup some of the bonus and retention pay while restructuring the company. [I see another regret coming.] In addition, administration officials said that the Treasury is planning to try to recover some of the bonus money by adding provisions to the additional $30 billion it gave AIG access to earlier this month. [And another one.]

The payment plan had been no secret. [That's right. They put it in place way in advance of pulling the plug on the economy so they could have their golden parachutes when the time came.] Beginning in the first quarter of 2008, AIG disclosed the plan to offer retention awards at Financial Products. The unit had already begun to hemorrhage money, a problem that would later grow exponentially. The unit’s executives, fearing they might lose valuable employees in the tumultuous months to come, successfully negotiated more than $400 million for their workers, to be paid this month and again next year.

At the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which has directly overseen AIG since its federal takeover in September, officials have studied the possibility of rescinding or delaying the bonuses.
They even brought in outside lawyers for advice. [Wow I am impressed. Really.] The conclusion: If the bonuses weren’t paid, the AIG staffers would be able to sue the company and probably would win, not just what they were owed but also punitive damages that would make the ultimate cost perhaps two to three times as high as the bonuses themselves.

Moreover, Fed officials also hope to keep current employees with the company. [They know where all the bodies are buried.] The senior executives whose decisions caused the company’s collapse are long gone. Most of those left behind are trying to unwind complicated derivative contracts. Completing that process correctly is essential to preserving as much value as possible for taxpayers, officials at both the government and AIG have argued. If it is mishandled, it could expose taxpayers to billions of dollars in additional losses. [I smell more regrets coming. This is complicated. Instead of writing their bad bets down to zero, like they should, they're going to get all mixed up in the paperwork.]

Law professors [anonymous, apparently] agreed with the Fed’s assessment but said AIG employees could still agree to reduce their own bonuses. And the outrage expressed by the president and lawmakers was designed to put pressure on these officers to do just that, the legal experts said. [Designer outrage? Yes it really does say that.]

Jonathan Macey, a professor at Yale Law School, said it was unlikely that any AIG employees would end up suing the company for changing compensation contracts, mainly because their names would be revealed publicly in a lawsuit and they would then be excoriated. Macey added that the government is caught in a difficult position, squeezed between public outrage over the bonuses and the need to keep AIG Financial Products going so the company can restructure and the government can recoup some of its money.

“What’s good for AIG is definitely not good for the country,” Macey said. “But now that the government is invested, it may have to do what’s good for AIG.” [Isn't it funny how it always seems to work out that way?]

Liddy is scheduled to appear tomorrow in front of a House financial services subcommittee. [For more kabuki.]

6 comments:

Greg Bacon said...

“It’s putting people’s lives in danger.”

When it comes to dealing death, the CIA infested AIG should know what it's talking about.

The UAW contracts got thrown overboard to the cheering of the MSM intelligentsia.
Can't be paying blue collar workers a living wage.

But whatever we do, we can't touch the Wall Street gangsters, why, that would be "UnAmerican."

Maybe we should "outsource" AIG jobs. I'm sure their are some savvy Indian bankers who could do better.

A. Peasant said...

I can think of other things that can be outsourced along with the jobs. Outsourced to the next dimension.

Greg Bacon said...

Ran across this site while looking for 9/11 material.

It's interesting, to say the least.

The list of sites they claim are CIA controlled is amazing.
Even Democracy Now and Cynthia McKinney are on Langley's payroll, along with Information Clearing House, Common Dreams and aL Jazeera???

Maybe this clown is on the CIA's payroll.

The CIA Fakes is a catchphrase term to describe a group which includes:
-- Covert Operatives of the CIA, NSA and DIA; of the U.S. Corporate/Military Industrial Complex; of the intelligence services of U.K. Spain, France Holland, Germany, and Russia.
-- Political Agents working within the Democratic Party, Republican Party, Democratic Black Caucus, Green Party, and Patriot Movement.-- Politicians in the U.S., U.K. Spain, France, Germany and Russia --who pose as 9/11 skeptics.
-- Media, including Mainstream, Alternative Media and Internet broadcasting media who either front for, cooperate with, or are directly employed by intelligence services mentioned above.


http://www.breakfornews.com/TheCIAInternetFakes.htm

Sis said...

What we need is something new - something orderly for the world. Everything is just falling to hell in a handbasket and I'm getting so very scared.

Perhaps if minds that are smarter than ours could come up with something New for the world - a new way of doing things - a new order.

Oh, I don't know. I wish someone would hold my hand and direct me and light my path. This is all just too confusing and weighs heavy on my soul. Is there anyone out there who can Illuminate us? Show us the way to a new world, an orderly new world?

Please! I want this. I need this. Direct me, please. I'm on my knees, begging. I promise to give whatever it takes. I've lost everything, except my liberty, but you can take that if you need compensation.

Someone please come and show us the way to a new world order before things get any worse. I'm so very, very scared.

Greg Bacon said...

Someone please come and show us the way to a new world order before things get any worse. I'm so very, very scared.

For starters, don't be scared of bullies. They love that shit as it just increases their power over you.

As for this AIG mess, isn't it convenient that this latest mess blew up the same time Seymour Hersh said Cheney had personally directed assassination squads outside of any review and under his authority only?

That's been dropped from the news cycle, just like Susskind's revelations last Fall that Bush had personally ordered torture.
Presto Chango, after a few of the usual BS sound bites from complicit Congressmen, this banking "crisis" blew up.

Damn, are those sadistic bastrds lucky are do they just have a good sense of timing?

Sis said...

I was being silly, Brother. I have a cold and can not think clearly under this cloud of Sudafed. I'll fight these bastards with my last breath.

Your comment about Hersh/Cheney gave me pause. You're absolutely correct. I had been waiting for Hersh to speak for about a year now. He finally does, but then I plum forget until you just mentioned it.

The sadistic bastards are lucky TO have a good sense of timing, is how I see it.

legal mumbo jumbo

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