AIG is an acronym

[JT Allen]

AIG= Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed.

[Raven]

AIG= Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed.

I will agree with that. It is pretty bad when 73 employees get $1 million dollar bonuses, and the average person is lucky to get a 2% raise, or no raise at all.

 

I really think that there should be a investigation into all of this.

[Guest ALWAYS RED_*]

Fact: AIG gave 2 politicians more than $100,000.00 in campaign contributions. #1 Sen Dodd #2 Barack Obama

Fact: Sen Dodd, at the insistence, he says of the Obama treasury dept, put a measure into the $787 billion stimulous bill that would guarantee AIG Execs their bonuses.

Fact: Obama spent weeks yelling Crisis & Castatrophe to get the bill passed into law without giving anyone time to even read it

Fact: Obama promised to get rid of corrupt earmarks. He signed into a law a bill with almost 9000 of them in it.

[Guest Office of Senator Dodd]

Senator Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, today issued the following statement on his executive compensation amendment:

 

I’m the one who has led the fight against excessive executive compensation, often over the objections of many. I did not want to make any changes to my original Senate-passed amendment but I did so at the request of Administration officials, who gave us no indication that this was in any way related to AIG. Let me be clear – I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week.

 

Reports that I changed my position on this issue are simply untrue. I answered a question by CNN last night regarding whether or not a specific date was aimed at protecting AIG. When I saw that my comments had been misconstrued, I felt it was important to set the record straight – that this had nothing to do with AIG.

 

Fortunately, we wrote this amendment in a way that allows the Treasury Department to go back and review these bonus contracts and seek to recover the money for taxpayers. Again, I have led the fight to curb excessive executive compensation, and will continue to do so.”

[Guest LAW_*]

Treasury Department Releases Text of Letter From Secretary Geithner to Hill Leadership on AIG

 

March 17, 2009

 

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

 

Dear Madame Speaker:

 

I know that there is considerable outrage in the House of Representatives, as there is throughout the country, about the bonuses awarded to employees of AIG Financial Products division at a time when the company is reliant on significant taxpayer dollars. The President shares that outrage, and so do I.

 

I am writing to outline the steps taken by the Department of the Treasury to date, to update you on the actions we are taking to recoup the retention payments just made, and to deal with future payments of executive compensation by AIG.

 

I registered my strong objections to Mr. Edward Liddy, the CEO of AIG, last week when I was first informed by my staff about the pending payment obligations.

 

Mr. Liddy told me that a tranche of $165 million in retention bonuses were contractually committed and payable by March 15 to employees within the financial products division - the very division most culpable for the rapid deterioration of AIG. Mr. Liddy, who took the reins of the firm after the bonuses were negotiated in April of 2008, said AIG's lawyers had concluded that the contracts were legally binding. I asked for a written explanation and legal analysis to support that claim, including the legal liabilities that would arise if the contracts were breached, and turned it over to Treasury's own lawyers to review.

 

Our lawyers agreed, in consultation with outside counsel, that it would be legally difficult to prevent these contractually-mandated payments. Even the new executive compensation restrictions recently passed in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) allow for the payment of contracts signed before the act went into effect.

 

I demanded of Mr. Liddy that he scrap or cut hundreds of millions of dollars in additional payments due this year and beyond. He has committed to do this on terms that are consistent with the executive compensation provisions of ARRA, the administration's executive compensation guidelines, and the interests of the American taxpayers.

 

As you know, the President has asked me to fully review all additional measures at my disposal to recoup these bonuses and to recover funds on behalf of taxpayers.

 

We are presently working with the Department of Justice to determine what avenues are available by which we can recoup the retention awards that have been paid. The executive compensation provisions of the ARRA provide that the Secretary of the Treasury "shall review compensation paid to the senior executive officers and the next 20 mostly highly-compensated employees of each entity receiving TARP assistance before the date of enactment of the ARRA, to determine whether any such payments were inconsistent with the purposes of this section or the TARP or were otherwise contrary to the public interest." If such a determination is made, the Secretary "shall seek to negotiate with the TARP recipient and the subject employee for appropriate reimbursements to the Federal Government." Our review will determine whether we can recoup these bonuses under the authority granted by ARRA or by other means.

 

We also want to insure that taxpayers are compensated for any monies we cannot recover.

 

Therefore, as part of our provision of recently announced taxpayer funds, we will impose on AIG a contractual commitment to pay the Treasury from the operations of the company the amount of the retention awards just paid. In addition, we will deduct from the $30 billion in assistance an amount equal to the amount of those payments.

 

Going forward, future AIG bonuses will be subject to the strict executive compensation provisions enacted by Congress in the ARRA. We are currently developing the regulations to implement those provisions, which will apply broadly to AIG and other companies receiving assistance from Treasury. These actions, consistent with the ARRA and other executive compensation guidelines under consideration by the Administration, are being taken to protect taxpayer funds and align long-term compensation with the interests of taxpayers.

 

But in working to resolve the AIG bonus problem, we should not lose focus on the larger issue it raises.

 

This situation dramatically underscores the need to adopt, as a critical part of financial regulatory reform, an expanded "resolution authority" for the government to better deal with situations like this. Such a resolution authority should include a comprehensive and broad set of regulatory tools that would enable the government to deal with financial institutions, like AIG, whose failure would pose substantial risks to our financial system, but to do it in a way that will protect the interests of taxpayers and innocent counterparties. Without this expanded authority, the government has been forced to take extreme measures to prevent the catastrophic collapse of AIG and allow the time necessary for its orderly wind down.

 

We will continue our aggressive efforts to resolve the future status of AIG in a manner that will reduce the systemic risks to our financial system while minimizing the loss to taxpayers. And we will explore any and all responsible ways to accelerate this wind down process.

 

I know that much of the public ire has fallen on Mr. Liddy, which is understandable, since it is his name on the door. But it also is unjustified. Mr. Liddy was put in place as the CEO of AIG last year at the request of the U.S. government to help rehabilitate the company and repay taxpayer funds. He inherited a difficult situation, including these AIGFP retention contracts, which were entered prior to his or the government's involvement in AIG. As long as he is there, we will work with him on measures to wind down AIG in an orderly way and protect the American taxpayer.

 

Most important for the long-term health of the credit markets that are a key to the economy, I look forward to working with Congress to modernize our financial regulatory system in way that protects the American taxpayer, meets the challenges of a dynamic global market and reduces the chance that we will face a financial crisis of this magnitude in the future.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Timothy F. Geithner

[Guest Nadeam Elshami]

Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement tonight on legislation the House will vote on tomorrow to hold companies, including American International Group (AIG), accountable for the bonuses that were paid to their executives. The legislation will recover the bulk of these bonuses by taxing them at a rate of 90 percent. Below the Speaker’s statement is a brief fact sheet on HR 1586 and click here to view the text of the bill.

 

We must stabilize the financial system in order to strengthen our economy and create jobs. We must also protect the American taxpayer from executives who would use their companies’ second chances as opportunities for private gain.

 

Because they could not use sound judgment in the use of taxpayer funds, these AIG executives will pay the Treasury in the form of this tax. I urge all my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation and in favor of recovering taxpayer dollars and protecting Americans from the continued poor judgment of some of America's largest companies.

 

As a result of extraordinary abuses of the public trust by companies rewarding employees with excessive compensation while receiving billions in taxpayer assistance, Congress introduced legislation to recover taxpayers’ dollars.

 

• The bill would apply a separate income tax rate of 90 percent to bonuses received by individuals from companies which have received at least $5 billion from TARP. It would also apply to bonuses paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

 

• For this purpose, bonuses will be defined as any retention payment, incentive payment, or other bonus which is in addition to regular employee compensation payable on a periodic basis.

 

• The special tax rate only would apply to individuals and families with overall income (including income other than bonuses) in excess of $250,000.

 

• The bill applies to payments received after December 31, 2008.

[Guest Christina Pretto]

AIG Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy delivered the following remarks today at a hearing held today by a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives:

 

“Thank you Chairman Kanjorski, Ranking Member Garrett, Members of the Subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you, as the representatives of our largest shareholder – the American people.

 

“My name is Edward Liddy. Six months ago, I came out of retirement to help my country. At the government’s request, I have had the duty and extraordinary challenge of serving as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American International Group – AIG. I speak to you today on behalf of 116,000 AIG employees around the world who are united around one simple belief: when you owe someone money, you pay that money back.

 

“I’m sure we all share that belief. I believe that you and I also share a common agenda today – to clean up the mess at AIG, and in the process help get the American economy moving again.

 

“Let me speak directly to the situation at AIG that has sparked the nation’s outrage over the past several days.

 

“No one knows better than I that AIG has been the recipient of generous amounts of government aid. We are acutely aware not only that we must be good stewards of the public funds we have received, but that the patience of America’s taxpayers is wearing thin.

 

“Where that patience is especially thin is on the question of compensation. I am personally mindful both of the environment in which we are operating and the President’s call for a more restrained compensation system.

 

“At the same time, we are essentially operating AIG on behalf of the American taxpayer so that we can maximize the amount we pay back to the government. We weigh every decision with one priority in mind: will this action help our ability to pay monies back to the government or hurt it?

 

“Although we have wound down more than $1 trillion in the portfolio of AIG Financial Products – the unit that is at the root of our financial problems – that portfolio remains very large – $1.6 trillion – and it continues to contain substantial risk. The financial downside for taxpayers is potentially very large and very real, and that’s why we’re winding this business down.

 

“To prevent undue risk exposure in the meantime, AIG has made a set of retention payments to employees based upon a compensation system that prior management put in place. Payments were made to employees in the Financial Products unit that caused many of AIG’s problems. And Americans are asking – why pay these people anything at all?

 

“Here is why. I am trying to prevent an uncontrolled collapse of that business. This is the only way to improve AIG’s ability to pay taxpayers back quickly and completely, and the only way to avoid a systemic shock to the economy that U.S. Government help was meant to prevent.

 

“Make no mistake, had I been CEO at the time I would never have approved the retention contracts that were put in place over a year ago. It was distasteful to have to make these payments. But we concluded that the risks to the company, and therefore the financial system and the economy, were unacceptably high.

 

“That said, we have heard the American people loudly and clearly these past few days. The payment of large bonuses to people in the very unit that caused so much of AIG’s financial trouble does not sit well with the American taxpayer, and for very good reason.

 

“Accordingly, today I have asked the employees of AIG Financial Products to step up and do the right thing. Specifically, I have asked those who received retention payments of $100,000 or more to return at least half of those payments.

 

“Some have already stepped forward and offered to give up 100 percent of their payments.

 

“The action we are taking today is the result of discussions with numerous parties, including Attorney General Cuomo of New York. We will work to ensure the highest level of employee participation in this effort in the days ahead. And we will keep the Congress and the American people informed of our progress.

 

“Obviously, we are meeting today at a high point of public anger. I share that anger. As a businessman of some 37 years, I have seen the good side of capitalism. Over the last few months, in reviewing how AIG had been run in prior years, I have also seen evidence of its bad side.

 

“Mistakes were made at AIG on a scale few could have ever imagined possible. The most critical of those was the creation of a credit default swap portfolio, which eventually became subject to massive collateral calls that created a liquidity crisis for AIG.

 

“I agreed to take the reins at AIG last September, after the company had turned to the U.S. Government for financial support. On behalf of my colleagues, I want to thank the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury for making the extraordinarily tough call to provide that support. It has meant that together we have been able to preserve jobs and businesses, and protect policyholders who rely on the promise of insurance to secure their well-being.

 

“We are moving urgently on a business plan designed to maximize the value of our core businesses, so that in turn we can maximize the amount that we repay to American taxpayers. We at AIG want to believe that we are all in this together. I have led AIG for six months now. And I want to assure you that the people at AIG today are working as hard as we can to solve this problem for the benefit of America’s taxpayer.

 

“And we need your help. We need the support of the congress to do this. And if we do this together, I am confident we can achieve two hugely important things:

 

Repayment of AIG’s debt to the government to the maximum extent possible;

And a solution to AIG’s condition that is a giant stepping stone to the economic recovery we all desire.

“With that, Mr. Chairman, I would request that my remarks and several additional documents be included in the hearing record, and I am happy to respond to your questions. Thank you.”

 

American International Group, Inc. (AIG), a world leader in insurance and financial services, is the leading international insurance organization with operations in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions. AIG companies serve commercial, institutional and individual customers through the most extensive worldwide property-casualty and life insurance networks of any insurer. In addition, AIG companies are leading providers of retirement services, financial services and asset management around the world. AIG's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the stock exchanges in Ireland and Tokyo.

[Guest LAW_*]

PRESS GAGGLE

BY

BILL BURTON

 

Aboard Air Force One

En route Long Beach, California

 

Q The President spoke before he left the White House about setting up a resolution authority. When are we going to get details about how that's going to work?

 

MR. BURTON: Well, he's working with Congress right now to get that done. This morning he spoke with Chairman Frank. Secretary Geithner is meeting with Chairman Frank later today -- actually maybe right now -- in Washington, to discuss the best way forward on this and broader regulatory reform.

 

Q So why did it take two days for the Treasury Secretary to tell the White House and, subsequently the President, to be informed about the -- what were then the impending bonuses?

 

MR. BURTON: Well, I'm going to refer you to what the President had to say before Marine One took off from the White House. But he, of course, is taking responsibility for what we do here, and what he's making sure is that we get the tools that we need to make sure that this does not happen again.

 

As for, you know, timelines and different things like that, we've been through this for the past couple of days, and Gibbs and others and folks at the Treasury have answered these questions. And for any more specifics on that, I'd refer you to some of the information that they shared with folks yesterday.

 

Q Well, I mean, up until now, Robert -- until the timeline was released last night, we didn't exactly know what the sequence was. So, I mean, is there any concern that it took two days for the Treasury Secretary to tell the White House about it?

 

MR. BURTON: As the President said, he's very confident in how Secretary Geithner is doing. And, you know, one of the things that we're going to talk about today in California -- because I imagine people are going to have questions about AIG, these bonuses, things that are happening in the economy. The President, as he has said, shares the profound anger of the American people about these bonuses, about the folks who are getting them. And we're doing everything we can to make sure that this doesn't happen again and to make sure that taxpayers are made whole on the money that's been paid out.

 

Q Do you anticipate any change in the internal communication system, though, so that it will flow more smoothly, more quickly?

 

MR. BURTON: As I said, the President feels good about how Secretary Geithner is doing, and we're looking forward at what we can do to make sure that we don't see these sort of egregious problems ever again.

 

Q The bonuses that have already been paid at AIG, there's really nothing that can be done about that, at least from the executive branch -- is that the thinking?

 

MR. BURTON: Well, the good news is some progress has actually been made on this, in the sense that -- and Liddy talked about this in his testimony today -- some folks at AIG have already paid back their bonuses. Other people are being encouraged to do the exact same thing.

 

So some progress is getting made on that. Secretary Geithner outlined how taxpayers would be made whole in his letter to Congress last night, and I can get that to you if you don't, by chance, have it.

 

And, you know, so we're going to be working with AIG to see what we can do here to make sure that taxpayers are getting exactly what they deserve from the investments that we're making in order to stabilize that company.

 

Q Did the President see any of the testimony? Did he hear about it? Has he been briefed on it? And more generally, what does the White House -- is the White House satisfied with what Liddy had to say? He said things like, you know, we have to pay the bonuses to keep people -- good people onboard so that we can maximize the return to the taxpayer. I mean, how does the White House sort of react to his testimony?

 

MR. BURTON: Unfortunately, because I only saw a tiny little bit -- a tiny piece of it, I'm going to have to refer you to folks on the ground who actually watched the whole thing and were able to see it.

 

Q Has the President been briefed? Has the President been briefed on Liddy's testimony today?

 

MR. BURTON: It just -- it literally just ended before I walked out here, so I don't know that that would be the case just yet.

 

Q Weren't the prepared remarks out -- weren't the prepared remarks out before we took off?

 

MR. BURTON: I guess I don't know if he had seen the prepared remarks.

 

All right?

 

Q Thank you.

[Guest Scranton]

When media reports of AIG's retention bonus plans for Financial Products first surfaced in January, Chairman Kanjorski personally called Mr. Liddy to express his concerns and outrage. Additionally, Chairman Kanjorski and Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY) joined together to write to the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department urging them to closely scrutinize the unit's bonus plans and to take steps to protect taxpayers by paring back these excessive rewards. Previously, Chairman Kanjorski and Congressman Crowley had worked to convince AIG to stop $93.3 million in deferred compensation payouts to several thousand AIG employees and agents.

 

Chairman Kanjorski has been the leader of the House Financial Services Committee's efforts to examine the federal assistance provided to AIG. In addition to convening next week's hearing and analyzing employee compensation, Chairman Kanjorski regularly raised public concerns about AIG's junkets last fall. More recently, Chairman Kanjorski and Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Spencer Bachus (R-AL) requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a study on the government's rescue of AIG and its impact on the U.S. insurance market. Completion of the report is expected in late March.

[Guest Human_*]

What does this say about Barack Obama when it comes to International Politics? Is he going to run like he is doing right now?

 

Because Leaders of other countries are watching this, and in Private they are already making jokes about him.

 

There is NO WHERE for him "Barack Obama" to run too. He IS for better or Worse the President Of the United States.

 

If I was an Intel officer for another country? My advice to a Foreign Leader would be that “He WILL BOLT under Pressure".

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fact: AIG gave 2 politicians more than $100,000.00 in campaign contributions. #1 Sen Dodd #2 Barack Obama

Fact: Sen Dodd, at the insistence, he says of the Obama treasury dept, put a measure into the $787 billion stimulous bill that would guarantee AIG Execs their bonuses.

Fact: Obama spent weeks yelling Crisis & Castatrophe to get the bill passed into law without giving anyone time to even read it

Fact: Obama promised to get rid of corrupt earmarks. He signed into a law a bill with almost 9000 of them in it.

[Guest DNC]

"People are rightly outraged about these particular bonuses," Obama said yesterday. "But just as outrageous is the culture that these bonuses are a symptom of, that have existed for far too long—a situation where excess greed, excess compensation, excess risk-taking have all made us vulnerable and left us holding the bag. And one of the messages that I want to send is that as we get out of this crisis, as we work towards getting ourselves out of recession, I hope that Wall Street and the marketplace don't think that we can return to business as usual. The business models that created a lot of paper wealth but not real wealth in this country and have now resulted in crisis can't be the model for economic growth going forward."

[Guest ALWAYS RED_*]

Obama to AIG: I'm so outraged by you guys. I'm wiring you another $15 billion now...

[Guest DNC]

"Washington is all in a tizzy and everybody is pointing fingers at each other and saying it's their fault, the Democrats' fault, the Republicans' fault,' he said at a town hall meeting in California on Wednesday. 'Listen, I'll take responsibility. I'm the President."

 

He added: "For everybody in Washington who's busy scrambling, trying to figure out how to blame somebody else, just go ahead and talk to me, because it's my job to make sure that we fix these messes, even if I don't make them."

[Guest Nuts and Bolts]

I pity Liddy.

He just came out of retirement to help AIG and volunteered to be pay a salary of $1 per year.

 

https://www.directorship.com/ed-liddy-s-salary---1

 

The MAIN culprits are the derivatives traders. I hope their congress will successfully pass a bill to tax all such bonuses gotten from government assisted corporation to be tax at a rate of 90% to 100%.

 

So to the 73 who had received these undeserving bonuses - please do the honorable thing by returning them. YOU or no one has even run away from the tax collectors before............

 

To keep the public's money will be a GREAT SHAME and a CRIME !

[Guest STEVEO]

Did President Obama and his White House whiz kids know what is conditional?

 

Obama was a lawyer and should know that.

 

I am shocked that bailout in billions of dollars go out with no conditions attached and lack the control and checks on how and where the money will be used and how accounted for. Unbelieveable.

These guys must be wet behind the ears in the management of public money. Conned.

 

read this:

 

AIG staff get death threats

Armed guards have been posted at AIG offices.

 

On Tuesday, it emerged that 11 AIG executives who had received retention bonuses of US$1 million or more had already left the company, stoking anger on Capitol Hill, where Congress is threatening to introduce taxes to claw back the US$165 million bonus payment to 400 staff at the division that caused its near-collapse. --

 

EXECUTIVES of American International Group (AIG) have received death threats over the US$165 million (S$253 million) in bonuses they received, as growing outrage threatens to engulf the insurance company and cause deep damage to President Obama's infant Administration.

 

The London Times on Wednesday reported that armed guards have been posted outside the Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products (AIGFP), prompting some employees to quit and others to stay away from work.

 

On Tuesday, it emerged that 11 AIG executives who had received retention bonuses of US$1 million or more had already left the company, stoking anger on Capitol Hill, where Congress is threatening to introduce taxes to claw back the US$165 million bonus payment to 400 staff at the division that caused its near-collapse.

 

Senators Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, the Democratic chairman and the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, have proposed a 70 per cent tax on bonuses for executives at companies that received money from the US$700 billion financial bailout package, which is designed to target AIG.

 

Democratic senators have also vowed to pass legislation within 24 hours taxing the bonuses at 91 per cent. In the House of Representatives, Democrats introduced a bill to tax at 100 per cent bonuses of more than US$100,000 granted by companies propped up by taxpayers.

 

The Internal Revenue Service taxes bonuses of less than US$1 million at 25 per cent and those over US$1 million at 35 per cent.

 

New York's attorney-general Andrew Cuomo has used subpoenas to uncover that AIG paid bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 executives, who stayed at AIG to help it to unwind its $1,600 billion portfolio of credit default swaps.

 

Of the 73, 11 had left, said The Times. They included one who got a US$4.6 million payment. In a letter to Barney Frank, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, Cuomo revealed that seven had received more than US$4 million each - a larger amount than the stricken insurer had previously indicated - while the top 10 were paid a combined US$42 million.

 

'AIG made more than 73 millionaires in the unit, which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing a taxpayer bailout,' said Cuomo. 'Something is deeply wrong with this outcome. I hope the committee will address it head on.' He said that it was unclear when or how they left the company or why the bonuses were paid.

 

AIG declined to comment.

[Raven]

With all of this going on no wonder we are in a deep recession. Thousands of people are losing their employment and homes, and these jokers are getting richer doing what? Taking our hard earned money and running? It is time for a new system of doing things, and stop handing out our tax dollars and getting nothing in return.

 

Did President Obama and his White House whiz kids know what is conditional?

 

Obama was a lawyer and should know that.

 

I am shocked that bailout in billions of dollars go out with no conditions attached and lack the control and checks on how and where the money will be used and how accounted for. Unbelieveable.

These guys must be wet behind the ears in the management of public money. Conned.

 

read this:

 

AIG staff get death threats

Armed guards have been posted at AIG offices.

 

On Tuesday, it emerged that 11 AIG executives who had received retention bonuses of US$1 million or more had already left the company, stoking anger on Capitol Hill, where Congress is threatening to introduce taxes to claw back the US$165 million bonus payment to 400 staff at the division that caused its near-collapse. --

 

EXECUTIVES of American International Group (AIG) have received death threats over the US$165 million (S$253 million) in bonuses they received, as growing outrage threatens to engulf the insurance company and cause deep damage to President Obama's infant Administration.

 

The London Times on Wednesday reported that armed guards have been posted outside the Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products (AIGFP), prompting some employees to quit and others to stay away from work.

 

On Tuesday, it emerged that 11 AIG executives who had received retention bonuses of US$1 million or more had already left the company, stoking anger on Capitol Hill, where Congress is threatening to introduce taxes to claw back the US$165 million bonus payment to 400 staff at the division that caused its near-collapse.

 

Senators Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, the Democratic chairman and the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, have proposed a 70 per cent tax on bonuses for executives at companies that received money from the US$700 billion financial bailout package, which is designed to target AIG.

 

Democratic senators have also vowed to pass legislation within 24 hours taxing the bonuses at 91 per cent. In the House of Representatives, Democrats introduced a bill to tax at 100 per cent bonuses of more than US$100,000 granted by companies propped up by taxpayers.

 

The Internal Revenue Service taxes bonuses of less than US$1 million at 25 per cent and those over US$1 million at 35 per cent.

 

New York's attorney-general Andrew Cuomo has used subpoenas to uncover that AIG paid bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 executives, who stayed at AIG to help it to unwind its $1,600 billion portfolio of credit default swaps.

 

Of the 73, 11 had left, said The Times. They included one who got a US$4.6 million payment. In a letter to Barney Frank, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, Cuomo revealed that seven had received more than US$4 million each - a larger amount than the stricken insurer had previously indicated - while the top 10 were paid a combined US$42 million.

 

'AIG made more than 73 millionaires in the unit, which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing a taxpayer bailout,' said Cuomo. 'Something is deeply wrong with this outcome. I hope the committee will address it head on.' He said that it was unclear when or how they left the company or why the bonuses were paid.

 

AIG declined to comment.

[Bluto]

The truth is my 'Ho' Chris mouthed off to CNN without first conversing with his pimp. I told him to keep working the clubs and parties. It is hard to get good workers these days. Straight Up!

[Guest ALWAYS RED_*]

I do not know how to comment on that one.

 

It was a mystery all week how this happened. No one could seem to figure it out.

 

But then...it leaked out that Democrat Senator Chris Dodd snuck a provision into the massive spending bill that allowed the bonuses to happen.

 

Dodd denied it at first, then changed his story and now admits that he did it, but says he did it at the request of "Administration staffers".

 

Finally, the Democrats have been forced to admit that they allowed the AIG bonuses to happen.

 

This has got to stop.

 

Please take a minute and to watch the RNC's new video exposing the Democrats' latest shell game.

 

 

[Guest Chris Healy]

On Monday, news broke about AIG paying out upwards of $165 million in bonuses to its executives after receiving $173.3 billion in taxpayer subsidized aid.

 

Upon further investigation, it came to my attention that over the course of the last few years, Senator Chris Dodd has received a bonus of his own... a total of $175,000 in contributions from AIG executives... $103,000 of which went to his futile Presidential campaign.

 

I was the first to call on Chris Dodd to return those contributions or give them to a Connecticut charity!

 

Under the "leadership" of Sen. Dodd, the Senate Banking committee placed an amendment in the "stimulus" bill that allowed for banks bailed out with taxpayer money - including A.I.G. - to hand out huge bonuses without any government oversight or regulation.

 

Where was Senator Dodd? What was he thinking?

 

Wednesday, Sen. Dodd denied having any involvement in passing that amendment until we turned up the heat here in Connecticut and in Washington and demanded an explanation.

 

Connecticut voters see which side Sen. Dodd has been on - and it is the side that pays.

 

Finally Sen. Dodd admitted that he indeed wrote the language allowing for the bonus loophole.

 

Is it any wonder? Sen. Dodd received more campaign contributions from AIG than any other candidate in 2008!

 

After I called on Sen. Dodd to return the contributions on Monday... Wednesday he told reporters that he would return the contributions, sighting pressure from me and others in our Party to do the right thing.

 

We gauge our success based on results. With your help, we can continue to hold Sen. Dodd accountable for sleeping on the job and make him answer the tough questions.

 

With so much at stake, we cannot afford Sen. Dodd's leadership anymore.

[Guest ALWAYS RED_*]

Banking Committee Senators Request Subpoena Of AIG Contracts

 

U.S. Sens. Jim Bunning , David Vitter, and Jim DeMint today requested that Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and Ranking Member Richard Shelby formally subpoena the relevant AIG contracts as well as any other documents related to bonus and compensation materials.

 

"I am deeply disturbed by the fact that the very same executives who were responsible for the risky behavior that led to the financial problems at AIG are still being rewarded with millions of dollars in bonuses paid for by the American taxpayer. These people don’t deserve bonuses. They deserve to be fired. I want to know exactly what Treasury Secretary Geithner, Fed Chairman Bernanke, and former Treasury Secretary Paulson knew about these contracts when the government decided to intervene and why they decided it was acceptable to reward bad behavior at the expense of the taxpayers. While this is an outrage, it is merely obscuring the larger problem that the money used to bailout AIG was really used to bailout European Banks and Goldman Sachs. This never would have happened if we hadn’t bailed them out in the first place," said Bunning.

 

"Since the very beginning of these federal bailouts, we have seen mishap after mishap at the taxpayer’s expense," said Vitter. "This bonus fiasco is the most recent and is a direct result of a lack of transparency and accountability. The public has a right to understand how these bonuses came to be and what the Treasury knew about the contracts prior to the recent press reports since it is their tax dollars that paid for it."

 

"Americans have every right to be angry after Washington politicians rushed to give billions of their taxes to AIG and promised them unprecedented taxpayer protections. Americans deserve to know who broke these promises and why. One thing is clear already: Americans are fed up with bailouts for failed businesses and don't believe the rhetoric from Washington anymore," said DeMint.

 

The rules of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee only require that the chair seek the agreement, approval, concurrence, or consent of the ranking member before issuing a subpoena, or the chair also may gain approval for a subpoena from a majority of the committee.

[Guest Fed Up]

I want to know where our taxpayer money to AIG is going? Can someone tell me about the contractual obligations. All contracts should be nullified when a company is bankrupt. I want names of the bonus recipients. AIG is now owned by the U.S. Government, so I want public disclosure. Why are we bailing England, France, and Germany?

 

 

View the video at YouTube.

[Guest Congressman Elijah E. Cummings]

For months, I have been calling on Edward Liddy to step down from his position leading AIG, and I loudly and clearly renew that call today. Mr. Liddy has repeatedly taken billions of hard-earned tax dollars from the American people—many of whom have lost their homes, their savings, and their jobs—and then slapped those people in the face with that very money. Mr. Liddy continues to display reckless and irresponsible behavior at the helm of this company, and we simply cannot afford to accept it any longer.

 

“AIG has been trying to play the American people for fools by giving nearly $1 billion in bonuses by the name of ‘retention payments,’—including to employees at the FP unit whose reckless behavior drove the company into the ground. Any credibility that could have been given to Mr. Liddy’s argument that these payments are necessary to retain top talent was completely destroyed in last month’s 10-K filing when AIG itself disclosed that nearly $60 million of those retention payments are going to employees who will be terminated.

 

“These payments are nothing but a reward for obvious failure, and it is an egregious offense to have the American taxpayers foot the bill. Something is terribly wrong with this picture, and the reckless behavior at AIG must stop immediately

[Guest Office of U.S. Sen. David Vitter]

U.S. Sen. David Vitter today requested that U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd schedule an immediate hearing to investigate the multi-million dollar bonuses paid out to AIG executives. AIG has received billions of dollars in government funds under the Troubled Assets Relief Program.

 

“Congress needs to begin an immediate investigation into this AIG bonus mess,” Vitter said. “Since last September, when Congress first began to consider the bailout proposal, I opposed it because it allowed government to make too many judgment calls. It’s poor judgment calls like the ones made regarding AIG that gave me pause in the first place and this bonus mess is a clear example of how things can go wrong when the government starts picking winners and losers in the marketplace.”

 

Vitter plans to amend legislation that the Senate will likely take up next week to prevent the release of additional and unobligated funds under TARP until the Obama administration can implement safeguards to the program. The amendment would rescind any funds as yet unobligated under TARP and apply them to the national debt.

 

“Until the administration can determine exactly what went wrong and how, no additional funds should be released under this problematic program,” Vitter said. “President Obama needs to sit down with his team and figure this out and find out a way to fix it before we obligate what could possibly be hundreds of billions of additional dollars. This amendment would end TARP – end these bailout programs – and force Congress to take a hard look at how best to manage these troubled companies. What we are looking at here is a true bureaucratic monster that’s been let loose without any real accountability and that needs to change starting now.”

[Guest Virginia Resident]

Senator Warner did a series of interviews with local television stations around Virginia this afternoon to discuss how we can fix the mess over the AIG rentention payments and make sure it doesn't happen again in the future.

 

 

 

Here's what he said:

 

What AIG did was morally wrong, I believe was potentially legally wrong... and it's just plain stupid. We as Americans have invested $170 billion in this company to try to get it through these hard times so it wouldn't fail and have a detrimental effect to the financial sector. ... I absolutely share folks' outrage and the one thing I can tell you there's not a member of Congress that I've talked to yet, that doesn't say we're going to get this money back. If they don't give it back, we're going to put in place something pretty extraordinary: a tax rate north of 90 percent on these specific retention benefits. This money is going to come back to the American taxpayer.

 

He said that he hopes that Congress' actions to recoup the government's money will send a message to other companies who are receiving government bailout money:

 

I hope it will send a signal to the other companies that have received public assistance that these are extraordinary times. An awful lot of Virginia families are hurting right now all across the Commonwealth. They've had to cut back. Don't give me the excuse that, "Hey, we've done well in the past and that means we're going to be able to continue the same kind of pay and benefits we've had in the past." If you are currently receiving federal benefits, you need to cut back on... the kind of executive compensations that have been so outrageous in this AIG case.

 

He also talked about his role as a member of the Senate Banking Committee in fixing the financial crisis and putting in a new regulatory system to prevent another crisis in the future:

 

We've got to not only stabilize the existing crisis, you've got to put in place a new financial regulatory oversight system so that this doesn't happen in the future. This time around it was derivatives and credit default swaps and obligations. We've got to put in place a regulatory system that doesn't allow basically half of the financial system to go unregulated. Over the last eight years, in this period of "deregulation at any cost," we've allowed companies like AIG to have all of these activities go on that nobody had any oversight on. I've got to tell you, as a new senator here, shame on all of us, but going forward, if I've got anything to say about it, that's not going to happen again in the future.

[Guest Douglass Elliot]

The main reason that AIG is in trouble is that in addition to a lot of very fine insurance operations, it also set up a group called AIG Financial Products. And this group took huge risks. It was operating like a giant hedge fund and was very lightly regulated. And it managed to lose AIG tens of billions of dollars, and in doing so, it endangered the rest of the company, which has then had a series of problems, with customers worrying about dealing with them, with employees leaving, and of course every financial institution right now is losing money because their investments are going down, like everybody else’s investments.