AIG CEO Asks For Half Of The Bonus Money Back
AIG CEO Edward Liddy told the House Financial Services subcommittee this afternoon that he has asked the members of the Financial Products division to voluntarily return half of their bonuses.
"It was distasteful to make these payments," said Liddy. "This morning, I've asked the employees of AIG Financial Products to step up and do the right thing. Specifically, I've asked those who received retention payments in excess of $100,000 or more to return at least half of those payments."
When asked by Chairman Barney Frank if he would agree to provide the names of the bonus recipients to the committee, Liddy agreed on the condition that they would remain confidential.
Frank refused to promise confidentiality and informed Liddy that he will subpoena the information if it is not provided. Liddy responded by reading from a recent death threat that suggested AIG employees and their families should be executed "with piano wire," claiming that releasing the names would endanger the lives of AIG employees.
Chairman Frank explained that the Congress would follow the advice of law enforcement and security advisers once the names were turned over, but that he was not persuaded by the death threat argument.
[CSPAN]
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Comments:
Piano wire? That's like 1-shot, 1-kill. Firebombing them all would be far far more effective.
I don't want these people to be able to choose to do things while the average American simply has things done to them.
Layoffs, pay cuts, outsourcing, downsizing, restructuring. Imprisonment.
I watched part online and caught an apology by the committee for threats and harassment to AIG employees. I don't advocate death threats, but do these executives have any idea how angry some of the less fortunate are going to be if they continue to see no consequences for disastrous actions?
Bastards. I have to admit, as an Obama supporter, I am very disappointed in the way our government just turned over this money to these fools with no conditions whatsoever. There is something strange going on, this just doesnt make sense. Are you telling me that they had no idea that greedy bankers would be greedy bankers? I want to know WHO took this out of the bill:
Barney Frank is a laughing stock. And aside from his ignorance he should be in jail
That's a half-assed solution
Yes I hate AIG getting bonuses with our tax money, but going after the money and the executives will not fix our finical system. This all seems to me as a distraction and a situation for Americans to vent their anger and frustration. At the end of day, we are still in a recession.
Yes... Half their bonus is a good start, Liddy. Now, what about the other half? And then the bailout money? What? AIG will fold? That's not really my problem, now is it?
Here's a hint, Liddy. Stop Rewarding Failure.
I'm glad Mr. Liddy got my letter. I was worried I had the wrong address.
@Solange82200: I wouldnt be too surprised if it was Barney Frank. Incredibly saddened, but not surprised.
It's a start at least, but who really would say "You know what, you're right. Let me just write you a check for 2 million, half my bonus."? I just want to fast forward to see how this all ends...
I don't think this Liddy guy is really fully aware yet that the government owns a staggering majority of his company. Half of the bonus? Is he shitting us? That's like catching the guy who stole your walllet, and having him tell you he'll give the wallet back with half the cash if you just let him go.
Not good enough, Joe. Not NEARLY good enough. I put you in charge of the entire advertising library!
The point isn't so much about the $ per se - it's about the exceptionally irrational and greedy behavior that it makes evident.
The people getting these extravagant bonuses performed abysmally in their jobs. This being aside from the fact that they had a huge part in destroying our financial markets. The fundamental question is why in the hell would people who have clearly failed so miserably get magnificent bonuses for having done so?
Great. So someone should release the names of EVERYBODY in that group, bonus or not. Let them all get killed instead. Is that what you want mr CEO? For more people then needed to be killed?
@Solange82200: Yes, it's quite ridiculous how Congress, and Barney Frank especially, is acting so surprised. They removed the prevision that would have prevented this. This makes me feel sorry for AIG in a way. I bet they want to pay back these loans ASAP so they don't have to keep dealing with this crap.
This grandstanding is laughable. Who couldn't wait to give away billions of dollars with insufficient constraints? "Oh, woe is us, Citi is advertising on a stadium!" "Oh, the outrage, AIG is paying bonuses in accordance with contracts!"
Take the money out of subsidies for ethanol and HFCS and it's win/win.
It was retention bonuses, not performance bonuses.
So you see, that makes it alright.
hear ye, hear ye, I declare we should bring back the age-old public humiliation and tar and feather these fools!
@Joewithay: Bingo. Massively freaking out over 0.1% of the federal money AIG has received is a waste of time. Our attention is needed elsewhere.
@Joewithay: I agree. As this goes on, it's starting to feel more and more like "witch hunt" and less and less like "justice".
As they said on CNBC, from an e-mail from a viewer:
"Using people's money to pay off other people. Sounds like a Ponzi scheme."
@ludwigk: Half of the bonuses? I think we'll be lucky if we see any of that money ever again.
By which I mean the money we've given them so far. Even if they somehow manage to survive and become profitable again they'll find a way to weasel out of repayment.
I say a public flogging (Michael Fay style) on the steps of city hall would work wonders.
@OmniZero: And as an added note...
Jon Stewart was right about "They burned the f---ing house down and walked away rich as hell". Their actions has caused the highest jobless rate in a long, long time. Then they get paid.
They paid themselves after they made hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs. How come no one up on Capitol Hill understands the severity of that? They have no idea what common people go through in a day and that makes me absolutely disgusted.
So by only keeping half the bonus money, we'll only be half as pissed off at them right?
Welcome to the Age of Show Trials.
I think this will work. They return half, and if their bonus is anything like what I got last year, the IRS will take the other half. Funny, I don't remember the IRS working late nightly, busting butt, but apparently they put in enough work on my projects to earn them 40% of my paltry bonus.
@GavinEstecado: Yeah, seriously. I'd go tell the guy to screw himself. That's _my money now_, and I'm keeping it.
@Gridneo: I don't remember where I first read this (definitely not at this link) but, google-fu resulted in this link so I'll provide it.
For those who won't follow the link lest they get a call from HR trying intervention after the network admin reported an employee researching suicide, I'll copy and paste.
Method 8: Emotionally Disturbing Piano Wire BeheadingYou will need
* Superglue
* Piano wire1. Find a very tall building, overlooking a public place. Stand on top of it with lots of piano wire and some superglue.
2. Tie one end of a piece of piano wire 5 meters short of the ground to your ankles. Secure the other end to the top of the building.
3. Tie one end of a piece of piano wire 10 metres short of the ground in a lasso around your neck, so it can tighten when pulled. Secure the other end to the top of the building.
4. Glue your hand to your head.
5. Jump!The result: at 10 meters from the ground, the piano wire around your neck will tighten and slice your head off. Your head will, however, not fall because it is stuck to your hand. You will be found dangling upside down 5 meters from the ground with your head stuck to your hand.
And a record 45,098 people have killed themselves after witnessing a piano-wire suicide. What a coincidence!
The original was in a chat log and ended with the other person in the chat saying "I don't think I can be your friend anymore."
@FrankGrimesJr: I very much agree that this is a witch hunt, and Congress has better things to do than argue over $160m when they've just blown through a trillion bucks. Never trust a politician to do anything other than what these guys getting the bonus are doing - putting themselves first.
@artki: And kangaroo courts. The shame is never what is illegal, but what is perfectly normal. Fatcat investors are getting their billions but the guys cutting the checks are having their pockets picked.
While getting this money back won't magically fix the depression, you have to remember that our current situation was the result of a huge number of smaller problems, actions and a lot of lack of foresight. There's no single sweeping fix that can fix all our problems, but hundreds of small steps in different sectors and situations that will, in the end, hold the right people accountable and to slowly rebuild the economy.
When someone murders another human being, nothing you can do can 'fix' the fact that a human being is dead, but you can punish the perpetrator. I'll admit, not a perfect analogy, but that's basically it.
I agree with some of the previous posters that this is only a minor deal compared to the spending CONGRESS did in the first place. I'm not really surprised that big companies spend money extravagantly or unwisely. They did that before the bailout; why would they change now?
I keep thinking about the graph that compares the war in Iraq to the bailout, and how insignificant the war is. The amount of money Congress just dropped on this bailout is astronomical.
IMO, Congress should be tarred and feathered for giving a trillion dollars of taxpayer money to corporations that should be allowed to fail under a free market. Since when was it the government's job to bail out private companies?
I still wonder how in the ~F~ people get jobs that allow golden parachutes (and the mentioned bonuses) even when they tank the company/division/department. It is like getting fired but being paid for it.
Just how does one word these retention bonuses to a prospective employer? Saying "I am so good that even if you fire me I will make money from your company." I understand about non-compete clauses and paying a severance but for over $1 million?
Or are these terms buried deep in the micro print of a contract? Or do you have to have the whole board of directors out on the country club golf course drunk out of their minds before you can get this agreement?
I don't understand why these Execs are still trying to weasle out of this. They don't see that if they don't do the right thing and give back ALL the money, eventually those names WILL be made public and then they will have a reason to fear for their lives.
Do the right thing, and they will most likely be able to keep their names secret. Course, people this greedy really don't see straight, and would most rather die a few thousand dollar richer (which won't help them when their dead) than be alive and not-as rich -_-
So I see two possibilities here:
(1) I received a bonus and am an incompetent lout who is going to lose my job due to my own incompetence and be an unemployed finanical worker in this economy with AIG as a stain on my resume. What incentive do I have to return any money?
(2) I received my bonus and am good at my job, which I'm now probably going to lose due to the incompetence of my management and co-workers, leaving me an unemployed financial worker in this economy with AIG as a stain on my resume. What incentive do I have to return any money?
Lotsa luck!
I can't read posts like this any more. My blood pressure. My poor heart. The blood shooting out of my eyes.
Half. Pfft. And he thinks the death threats his employees are receiving are going to make us sympathetic towards them? Just who's money does he think he's dolling out?
Sorry, I need to go bang my head against the wall. It's less painful than watching these jokers piss away our money.
What Mr. Liddy fails to realize is that Chairman Frank is planning a good old fashioned Salem Style witch-hunt and that's very hard to do if you can't parade your victims around in public.
The truth is that AIG had contractual obligations to pay these people for work they did as much as 2 years ago. It's admirable that some are giving back the money and sad that that won't be enough for blow-hards like Barney Frank (someone who holds a great deal of blame for our current situation.)
Can my grandchildren have half the bailout back?
@knightracer: He's hoping the peer pressure of some of them giving it all back will prompt the others to respond in kind.
@Applekid: You realize, of course, that you've just upped the Halloween Best Home Decoration ante considerably, right?
@JackWalker: As despicable as they are, you do realize that the bonuses are < .1% (that's less than a tenth of a per cent) of AIG's bailout?
I'd start with the government...
String 'em up!