Bams

Didn't know if anyone saw this yet so here it is. I would comment but why bother, it speaks for itself.

AIG hits up Fed for more money - Oct. 8, 2008

Ramonna Villota

Another golden parachute

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Ramonna
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Bams

Yeah you need lots of cash when you're throwing $500K parties for your execs. :/

Kristian

is it ok to wish these guys would die in a fire? is that ok?

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Bams

I'd be willing to take a karma hit for that one.

Kit Lacy

Amateur. Don't you have any respect for tradition?

I believe guilotines were made for occassions such as this.

/me awaits accusations of class envy

Bams

Too quick. I say we do it on Pay Per View and use the proceeds to refund the tax dollars.

Teeny Leviathan

Wanda Sykes has some good ideas here. I wanna use the pool too.

Malachi

This is just a game at this point. I just sent an application into the Fed for $2 billion for my Kim Grove Cartoon Collection Bailout but expect I'll be able to get another billion next week.

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Malachi

It fucking was not made fucking clear why fucking AIG needed the additional fucking funds?!??!

Bard Jameson

I believe it was for a 25 foot ice sculpture of a giant AIG finger sliding deep within a giant taxpayer ass.

Or maybe it was 7500 shrimp cocktails.

One or the other.

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mcgeeb Gupte

Don't know what to say.

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Lexxi Gynoid

AIG can go fuck themselves with giant steel dildos with spikes. 5 feet long. Spikes allow it in, but not out. And yes, I do realize shoving a five foot anything into someone that is 5 feet 11 inches tall will have dire consequences.

Brave Republic

the fact that they took a junket to that resort spending $400K was criminal!

An analogy is a car drives through a puddle drenching you with water and when you look up the passengers are flipping you the bird through the back window.

Whoever said "go with this" on that meeting should be fired either before or after painful beatings

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Jessica Robertson

I know I am going to be tarred, feathered, shot, and crushed for my view here but here goes anyway!

The whole AIG party mess.
Admittedly it was insane for them to carry through with it.

However, they hold this event every year for their top earning sales executives. These are events are planned a year in advance. There are no show charges, had they cancelled it would have cost them 50-60% of the cost anyway. So, 50% of the cost was already sunk. This event is a way of rewarding top earners. These sales executives are not the guys that ran the company in to the ground, they did their jobs.

In short, the "party" is an incentive for top sales earners. The timing for this occured when their top sales executives are looking at jumping ship to go to other companies because of the fear of bankruptcy.

I know the perception of this is OMG They had a party! WTF! However, there is more to it than that.

As for asking for further funds from the Government, AIG can go screw themselves. They should have never passed the GD bailout in the first place.

/me paints a target on her chest.
Fire Away!

Malachi

$400,000 / $118,000,000,000 = 3.4x10^-6

What is that? 3 ten thousands of a percent?

You cad!

Surreal

So... written your senators yet?

There is already outrage and focus on AIG for the party. I expect it will intensify with the new request.

I'd also like to remind you that this is still a secured loan, unlike the bail out for the Big Three that no one seems to be (1) outaged about or (2) even talking about. Now that's $$ we will never see again.

mcgeeb Gupte

Seems to me that the only bailout is for the rich person. What about everyone else that can't afford to pay for gas, their rent and house payment, or food for that matter. I say that these companies that ran themselves into bankruptcy should end up dealing with it like everyone else would, without government (taxpayer) help. I don't pay taxes to rescue companies that SUCK!

Surreal

No, you're paying them to rescue the employees, and their banks, grocers, gas providers, etc.

I can't find exact figures on how many people AIG employs directly, but it's a lot of people. A huge number of people. Enough so that it's been deemed too big to fail without taking a big chunk of the economy with it. And that doesn't count all the people who make money thru doing business with AIG.. like the people who lease them office space.. and their employees.

No matter what happens, the people who made the bad decisions won't pay for them. Upper management is going to skate.. although there is some effort to hold them accountable. The people who get screwed are everyone down the food chain.

Those are the people we're trying to cushion. And it still is a secured loan! People seem to keep overlooking that in the hyperbole. AIG has assets. So keep your congressman's and senator's feet to the fire on the issue.

Let me state this another way. I'm one employee of a big-ass multinational. This is a short list of the people who make money from me:

Contracting house and all their employees
My apartment owner and their employees
Electric, Gas, Phone, and Cable companies and their employees
Auto and renters insurance companies and their employees
Grocery store and gas station, their employees and their suppliers
City, State and Federal government (no job = no taxes)

And that's just the essentials. Add in my hair cut every 6 weeks, out to eat once a week, sim rental to LL, the new suit I desperately need to buy for interviews, two cavities I'm putting off, etc.

THAT is why we're floating AIG a big-ass loan.

Cocoanut Koala

Still, I'm about ready to throw some tea into the harbor.

coco

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Surreal

Well sure, but the time for that was back when people like Phil Gramm were stripping away the regulations that kept this from happening. A nation that didn't learn from the S&L crisis are doomed to repeat it.

Arilynn

I agree. But it is more than just the vast number of employees at AIG. It is its involvement with financial institutions around the globe and the number of average people - such as its policy holders - who would suffer if it failed.

AIG executives who went before Congress testified that it is undergoing major cost cutting measures. This should be a no-brainer. But that alone will not be sufficient to meet its obligations to securities-lending financial institutions, which is the aim of the NY Fed's agreement to provide cash in return for AIG's fixed-income securities.

Surreal

I'm having an ironic laugh right now. AIG is my auto insurance provider and they just sent me a renewal notice that would raise my 6-month rate by about $200. So I'm headed to the gecko.

Sooz Pascale

Heres how this could have been handled intelligently: First, contracts ARE negotiable, even after signing if circumstances so dictate. AIG displayed incredibly bad jaudgment in going ahead with this, although the nes is now that they have just cancelled it due to voter outrage. What they could have done is talk to the resort and tell them they need out of the party due to the bailout and the perception of malfeasance if it goes on. If the resort refuses to cooperate tell them "fine. We will litigate this and see how YOU enjoy the negative publicity that follows." A smaller penalty for cancellation then could, I'm sure, have been worked out.

Also, both Obama and McCain have missed a golden opportunity here. Either one of them could have pointed this out as one of the problems in the bailout and indicated that in his administration both the SEC AND the JUstice Department will be taking a very hard stand, including criminal charges, for the misuse of tax payer money on events such as this.

Sheer stupidity is what this is.

Sooz

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Surreal

Obama brought this up early in the debate.