AIG Thoughts
I have pondered this current manufactured event and it reminds me of an over blown Punch & Judy event without the puppeteers being hidden. My wife and I told our eldest when he was about 15 that he needed to quit being bad because he was no good at it. This whole debacle reminds me of the time when some fresh cookies went missing and my boys both swore up and down it wasn’t them even though there were crumbs on their shirts and chocolate on their faces. The AIG situation is a lot like that.
People are blowing this deal way out of proportion. Ok the money is huge but the nuts and bolts are exposed for all who care about accuracy to see for themselves. Let’s break it down. Let’s say that you are an insurance/financial wizard. AIG wants to get you into their talent pool. You are a free agent and you negotiate your package that includes a $1million bonus somewhere in the life of the contract. You sign up and everything is golden right?
Nope a couple of divisions within AIG are threatening to do a financial Hindenberg impersonation. No worries. You have a contract with the parent company. Just like Avis or Jiffy Lube or the Santa Barbara Police might have a contract with a part of AIG. AIG is legally bound to meet the terms for their side of the contracts.
The whiz bang stimulus/bailout package that came down the pipe included exemptions to scrutiny/oversight or any other hoo haw regarding these large bonuses. Basically these preexisting contracts get a pass and are allowed to remain in effect.
Now the authors of the package that accepts these contracts as is feign ignorance as to the existence of these contracts and express outrage at the greed and insensitivity the recipients have exhibited. What the….? These guys just put a deal together and did their part and now want what is rightfully theirs. This is bad why? It doesn’t matter how much the deals were for. These were exempted legal deals put together prior to the bail out and everybody that is in authority is acting mad with many load harumphs to prove their distaste for this unseemly behavior. The recipients did nothing wrong. Maybe the AIG guys writing the contracts did something wrong when they wrote the contracts but that is a business deal. They did nothing illegal.
Ok with all these exemptions and non illegalities, why all the hubbub? Why are the recipients being set up as bad guys?
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/cuomo-seeks-aig-bonus-information/
http://www.newser.com/story/53597/73-aig-execs-got-1m-bonuses-cuomo.html
http://www.daylife.com/article/0208gpP032fvT
Outrage? Outrage? They knew about it before. It was legal. The “outraged” gave them a pass and now when the public calls BS instead of standing up like honorable adults and explaining their rationale for the exemptions they point the finger at the legal participants declaring them bad and immoral. AIG probably wrote these contracts with their fingers crossed but that was their legal business right to do that.
In this case, who is really bad, immoral and illegal? AIG or our fearless leaders?
About Me
- Stump
- I am a regular guy. I am married to Lisa. Dad to DJ, WB and Bear. Dad in law to Mandi and Pops to Annystin, Devynn and Micah. I believe in objective truth. I believe in intelligent design. I believe we are being sold down the river by people with an agenda that ultimitely is not good for the US or the world as a whole. We have gotten lazy as a people and allowed ourselves for whatever reason to become slackers about our own well being. We need to become informed and be proactive with our knowledge. 'stumpblog' is mainly a log for my training sessions. 'More to the Story' is blog where I will post different links on current events that we don't hear much about. FNG started as one thing and now stands for Faithful News Guy. I am not a preacher, prophet, pundit, politician or anything other than just a regular guy that wants to be part of the real recovery. This blog is not about one individual or a certain party. This is about us as a community coming together to restore our heritage for the good of our future.
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