Great quote from DarkSyde over at Daily Kos:

"Let me get this straight: The insurance industry, you know the one that effortlessly conjures up scores of convenient reasons to delay or deny little jaundicing Johnny's liver transplant or pay up on Joe Punchclock's storm flattened house after collecting premiums for years, is suddenly helpless when it comes to finding the legal justification to withhold hundreds of millions in "bonuses" to the guys who sunk their company along with the global economy? Yeah. And if you believe that, I've got a tranche of guaranteed-not-to-fail Credit Default Swaps to sell you."

Obama inherited the bonuses.

Come on now, that's funny.

Someone ought to warn those guys (I'll bet they're at least 90% "guys") at AIG that they're about two and half steps ahead of a lynch mob as it is and that if they weigh themselves down with a million dollar bonus, they may not be able to stay ahead.

Let them fail.

I've come to the conclusion that I want those CEOs to keep that bonus, to keep that wholesale robbery of the taxpayers blood, cash that could be getting used to reinvest back into the economy and make new jobs. I want those CEOs to choke on it. And I want every single outraged person to remember that this never would have happened if so many people hadn't been suckered in by Republican slogans like "cutting through red tape" and "getting rid of regulations and freeing business". That red tape, those regulations, those were the things that would have kept this from happening.

And hey, if our tax rates were where they were 30 or so years ago, these CEOs would probably be taxed at 60%+ and the country would be able to recoup at least over half of that cash back. But we can't, because we were too concerned on "doing right by rich people" and cutting capital gains and cutting taxes for the rich.

Just hold that anger in and direct it where it needs to go. Not at some faceless CEO, at the people who removed necessary regulations to protect our economy and cut taxes on these crooks, which motivates them to demand larger and larger salaries because they can better avoid the tax hit.

What's sickening is that the same politicians who signed off on these deals in the first place are now exercising rightous indignation over how the money has been spent. It seems that if they were that concerned, they could have written control provisions as a condition of accepting the funds. Perhaps this very justified public outrage will cause that to happen in the future.

You obviously are an enemy of the free-market system, Carla, and probably a feminazi to boot. I will make sure that Glenn Beck features you on his next show. Meanwhile you are hereby condemned to read Atlas Shrugged.

Saw the headline... thought someone posted some e-mail from my ex here.

Carla, Chuck:

What do you think an appropriate retirement package for Peggy Fowler should have been? - just a ball park figure estimate.

thanks

gl

Why does she need a package at all? She's been drawing hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for many years. If she hasn't saved it and invested it wisely, then that's her problem. The ratepayers shouldn't be picking up the tab for her condo in Hawaii (or wherever) and a life of luxury from age 57 (her age now, I understand) until she passes on sometime in her eighties with first-class medical care courtesy of the taxpayers.

Let them fail.

....but not until Oregon gets its $270M from AIG.

So, Corker is a big AIG recipient and wanted to abrogate auto union contracts?

Actually, I though Barney Frank had the right idea. Abrogating contracts is not a good idea (think of what that precedent could do to union contracts) but as Cong. Frank said,"maybe we legally have to pay them the bonuses, but then they should be fired for the mistakes they made".

"Let's see...Seattle City Light chief exec Jorge Carrasco gets $225,000/year annual salary. Their customer rates have dropped 8.4% (source)

Fowler's final year salary is $4.5 million. PGE is roughly double the size of Seattle Light (and PGE's rates have gone up 46.2% since 2001). Fowler will get $790k per year as part of her retirement package."

Carla, thanks. Chuck any input?

Nationalize. The. Banks. Today.

These guys wouldn't have had taxpayer-supplied bailout money to give themselves bonuses with if the government hadn't handed them that money in the first place.

Once the government is running the show, who regulates the regulators?

There have to be consequences for failure, and rewarding failure with taxpayer dollars is hardly an incentive to do better next time.

A reanimated corpse is just a zombie.

Let the banks fail.

torridjoe's little list above makes the point I'm trying to make very clear. What good is more regulation when everyone in Congress is on the dole from the very companies that we're supposed to be keeping an eye on?

Despite the misconceptions of a lot of people, corruption and graft aren't just Republican problems.

The proposed bonuses going forward were very generous, in the name of keeping these people from seeking 'better' employment. Boy, I'll bet there are a butt load of hiring opportuninties right now. Apparently they were rolled back to 30%.

I'll volunteer for jury duty on that one..

"Block the bonuses, make them go to court to publicly defend them"

The reason they are going forward with the bonuses in the first place is because the citi group execs felt the people, in general, didn't have the guts or the resources to go to court to oppose them. They felt that since the people couldn't afford lawyers, and had no other recources, the people were no viable threat to them.

How wrong they are.

Peggy Fowler's retirement pension should be in line with the rank and file 30-year PGE pensioners who lost virtually everything during the Enron years.

About $.10 cents on the dollar.

AIG exec bonuses should be slightly less.

Those of us to the left of Obama (almost everyone) are not shocked. We're merely more pissed off than we were before.

What's not being said is that Obama is either very stupid not to have foreseen something that even I saw or he is complicit in this obnoxious business, regardless of his rhetoric. (But he is less obnoxious.)

Isn't Seattle City Light a municipal corporation and not privately heald? Portland should have purchased PGE when it had a chance. Then Fowler's salary wouldn't happen. Want to bet there are a bunch of other high salaries / bonuses / parachutes at PGE? It will happen over and over again. You can't stop it. Same as AIG.

When I saw the title I was going to say something snarky about a recap, but then I read it and thought it was great. Then I saw the responses and thought, "that figures".

Of course this is evil and foul and all of the above, and of course the Democratic Party is also guilty of being in bed with these corporations . . . doesn't this mean that this is the historic moment to try and reform this? Isn't this the appropriate time to try and free ourselves, to whatever degree we dare, from the rule of our corporate overlords? Shouldn't we seize the day and overturn the bankruptcy bill, cement the concept of net neutrality, actually fund education in a non-negotiable way, get ourselves some judges that are as far to the left as Alito and Thomas and Roberts are to the right, and, of course create SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE . . .

If not now, when? Do you think, in any of our lifetimes, we will see a better chance than now? The transparent idiocy and venality of AIG on top of everything else has moved us to a tipping point. It would be a shame to waste the moment on lowering some white collar bonuses.

It's clear that Obama is trying to tamp down the fires of this movement. It's up to the rest of us to bring the heat!

Responding to torridjoe and Vincent: As best I can tell there are over 17,000 registered lobbyists in Washington D.C. That's about 32 lobbyists per member of Congress. Between 1998 & 2006 the financial sector spent $2.56B* on lobbying (health was 2nd with $2.3B). That's a lot more free speech than I have (as in $ = free speech).

• Includes insurance & real estate. ** I believe that includes state & local.

Most members of Congress have to average raising several thousand dollars per day to fund their re-election campaigns. How much time do they spend on an average day dialing for dollars instead of doing what we elected them to do? They don't have time to call the 100s of small time donors like me it would take to raise that kind of cash so they go where the money is and try to keep their donors happy without ticking the rest of us off too much.

The way things are now the only way to overcome the influence of lobbyists and big time donors is to overwhelm them with numbers.

More on topic. If they can renegotiate the employment contracts of 1000s of auto workers they can renegotiate the employment contracts of the credit default swap division of ARG.

tj... ARG ... LOL!

Instead of paying them in cash, why not give them some of those credit-default swaps they conjured? At "book value", of course.

"What's not being said is that Obama is either very stupid not to have foreseen something that even I saw or he is complicit in this obnoxious business, regardless of his rhetoric.

The naiveté and overall lack of experience that kept many Americans from supporting BHO for president is making itself glaringly apparent just two months into his administration.

He is, basically, a green kid getting rolled by the old pros who inhabit the halls of power in Washington and Wall Street. No amount of good intentions on his part can overcome his lack of savvy when dealing with these sharks.

If he doesn’t wise up in a hurry it is going to be a long four years indeed.

What a phony issue. Chris Dodd himself include the provision to limit executive pay except for current contracts himself! If Bush would have inserted the provision into the bill and then was outraged, I can't believe progressive would be outraged solely at AIG and not Bush.

Where's the consistency? I won't hold my breath waiting for the outrage against the Dems for having their Wall Street friends suggest to inject that provision.

Also, Obama's outrage is phony as well. He knew of the provisions being written into limiting executive pay and he needs AIG as it's his conduit to allow cover to bailout foreign banks.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123725551430050865.html

We need an honest debate and transparency in government. To date transparency have been redefined to be opaque, just as enemy combatants.

The Obama, Dodd and and these phony executives are laughing their butts off today, knowing full well $163M is a small price to pay to deflect where $93B was diverted.

Wake up Obamabots, you are acting like Bushiebots!

Does anyone know of protests planned in front of AIG offices? I would like to participate in a march to show my disgust at the action of these robber barrons.

Thanks

Obama is no "green kid". He is not naive, not about corporate control of the economy, not about ecological devastation, not about Israel/Palestine, not about single payer or the military/security complex. He voted for the Bush bailout, therebye making it the Bush/Obama bailout. He has taken the Bush SOFA as his blueprint for more slaughter in Iraq. He continues with the Patriot and Military Commissions acts.

His connection to AIG is obvious, even if the details of the deal were worked out prior to his administration. Besides, AIG is just a symptom of the sickness that threatens us all. Fundamental change is necessary, and throwing money at the rich is what we're getting. The irony is that McCain would have won the election if he had opposed the Bush/Obama bailout, as Newt Gingrich begged him to do.

Posted by: Dan Petegorsky | Mar 17, 2009 12:28:32 PM

Does anyone know of protests

Nationwide actions are currently being planned for Thursday; check out Take Back the Economy.

Some basic numbers, please.

1). I'm collecting $5 million in bonuses, after tax, and there's is nothing that you can do about it.

2). We invested $50 billion in the Portland, AIG office. That includes local mortgages.

3). I live 3,000 miles from Little Beirut and you will only make a hassle for your neighbors. Frankly, my dears...

You keep asking about chutzpah. Actually it's more a question of restraint, candy and babes. Oh, you're aware a certain, recent, ex-President has been doing the interview rounds in big D? Interviewing for and discussing positions that would, by employment contract, be senior, bonus rewarded positions? Did I mention that one of the suitors is receiving Fed bail-out money? It's the Fed's people. It stopped being yours on April 15.

He deserves it. This would not have been possible, without his playing the villain so well. All you conspiracy theorists were so focused on "another Bush" that you really, really, believed that if you could just kill the evil Emperor- and his sidekick Darth- that the Empire would suddenly be friendly towards you.

It wouldn't matter if you did realize it. You can't see the long game . In those terms the last President succeeded wildly.

Protest? Consider these numbers.

1) I am collecting $5 million, after tax, bonus compensation alone, and you can't stop it.

2) We invested $50 billion in the Portland office.

3) Little Beirut is 3,000 miles from my house. You will only hassle your neighbors.

Chutzpah? More like restraint and candy and babes. You have to admit you've totally missed a certain recent, ex-President, doing the interview rounds in the big D, one at an institution receiving Fed assistance. Hmmmm. He must be bothered about his popularity.

He deserves it. By playing the villain, he had everyone believing that if you just replace the evil Emperor and his sidekick Darth, that the Empire will become a nice, friendly place. Oh well. Whatever keeps you making your monthly interest maintenance payments.

<h2>If you want a real villain, find the engineers that put these "enhancements" into typepad!</h2>