Welcome to another episode of AIG: The Outrage. People are angry! They are really, really angry! They are starting to remind me of Mr. Furious, Ben Stiller’s character in Mystery Men. Which is a pretty good film, btw. If you’ve never seen it, add it to your Netflix queue.
Anyway, being angry is so de rigueur in Washington right now that even Edward Liddy, CEO of AIG, is angry. CNN reports that Liddy is expected to tell Congress today, “We are meeting today at a high point of public anger. I share that anger.” That’s one hell of a bandwagon effect.
Public discussion is devolving into anger correctness. Mo Dowd says President Obama is not angry enough. On the other hand, Ruth Marcus of WaPo thinks Obama is way overdoing the anger. Clearly, we need an Emily Post-type arbiter of what’s appropriate, anger-wise.
David Stout reports for the New York Times that there is an outpouring of anger on the Hill today. I’d turn on CSPAN, but I’m afraid my television set would melt.
It’s not so clear to me that anything will have changed after all the public displays of anger are done and everyone goes home for a nap.
In their defense, AIG’s management team explained that they asked employees last year to go without their bonuses, and the employees said, take a hike. So AIG execs were helpless. They had to pay out those bonuses. I’m sure they are angry about it.
As for politicians, I’ve seen news stories saying the feds knew for months that bonuses would be paid, and others saying they were caught by surprise. Whatever. I just want to know what they’re going to do now, other than be really, really angry about it.
I recall the bonus-restricting language being edited out of the stimulus by the House, and thinking at the time that it would turn around and bite them one day. So good morning, House committee members, your Day of Reckoning has arrived! If your po widdle ears have been singed, so be it.
(Proper etiquette is to offer a tube of ointment, and a plastic knife, after singeing someone’s ears. The gesture says, “No Hard Feelings, but next time the ears come off.“)
Is Obama’s anger too hot, too cold, or just right? Unless it leads to action, it’s really Just For Show, and the question is irrelevant. He needs to get a plan in place, first to recoup the bonus money, either by taxing the recipients or fining the company that awarded them. Then assert majority stakeholder control over all companies where the taxpayers have majority interest, so this shouldn’t happen again. And finally, ask, “Any questions, fools?” Then go to work on some other pressing problem, because they’re all pressing problems, these days.
And I must add, Ben Stiller would make an excellent Treasury Secretary, should the current secretary be unable to fulfill his duties for some mysterious reason.
If you’ve never seen [Mystery Men], add it to your Netflix queue.
Done.
I’ve been alternating Dick Van Dyke (1962) with the Muppet Show (1977), and I need to break up Sally Rogers and Miss Piggy with some Janeane Garofalo.
Yes, I’m angry about the bonuses, too. Very angry.
But, what I find even more troubling is the banks that AIG gave money to. A lot of them were foreign banks.
Why are we, the US citizens, paying the whole freight of the cost? Why isn’t Germany or France helping with the bailout? AIG gave our bailout money out to banks from their countries.
I asked this a few weeks ago, but the question remains unanswered: If these are international companies, why aren’t other countries throwing a few sheckels in to help us and them out?
This is the angriest post I’ve ever seen at The Mahablog! 🙂
What, indeed, are they going to do now other than “be really, really angry about it.” One thing that should be done by elected Democrats, and done as often as possible, is to explain that these Wall Street executives were and are doing nothing more than acting in accordance with standard Republican dogma: greed and selfishness are good for society; deregulation and privatization will solve all our problems; and those who “make” millions of dollars each year should be worshipped and admired, not criticized and taxed. The more people come to understand that Republicanism has been wrong about everything for the past thirty years, the better off we’ll be.
The next move is Obama’s. It seems to me, he’s trying to finesse a very difficult situation. On one side, he has an increasingly angry public expecting fundamental changes in the way things are done. On the other side, he’s faced with the relatively small handful of sociopaths who run the global financial system and have to be kept happy because they really don’t care whether or not the world collapses into a second Great Depression. In fact, I’m sure most of them would prefer a second Great Depression (it’d be a great time to pick up assets at deeply discounted prices).
I think it’s time for Obama to start playing that game of six-dimensional chess that he played so well during the campaign.
If you’ve never seen [Mystery Men], add it to your Netflix queue.
Done.
I’ve been alternating Dick Van Dyke (1962) with the Muppet Show (1977), and I need to break up Sally Rogers and Miss Piggy with some Janeane Garofalo.
Sorry, should have mentioned good post! Waiting for your next one!
I can sort of see the “take a hike”
I can see myself if someone said do you want the million dollars we said we would give you or do you want to let us keep it. I am not that charitable! What I can’t understand is there not being a clause in the contract saying if we are going under and taking the rest of the world economy with us.. we might need to withdraw the bonus we would like to give you.
Wonder what legal department drew up that contract?
I guess American politics has gotten to the point where you can be a lying sack of crap and still be considered a “good” politician. I voted for Obama, and still support him, but I am very disappointed in his pretending to be “angry” about something that we all knew about, and that he had to know about, months ago, regarding these bonuses. That entire “Washington” is now “angry” is such theatre and pretense that plays us all for fools. I am willing to bet, in the end, the bonuses will be paid in exchange for “promises” that this won’t happen again.
This is Washington business as usual (i.e. let’s put one over on the rubes) in the worst way, and this is a perfect example, one would think, of something Obama would apply “change” to.
I miss being angry at George W. Bush. By late 2005, being angry at George was such a crowd pleaser. It was a wonderful group activity. I know he’s out of office, but can’t we be angry with him at least a few more months?
What about ‘bailout’ doesn’t anyone understand? This is not ‘profit’ to pay bonuses.
The bailout was to help this company survive. There is no money for bonuses. This
is pure politics. How can you reward anyone who worked in a failed business?
165 million in light of the 30 billion is not very much heck home depot gave 200 million to get its CEO to leave. so whats the big deal. its all play money any way we dont have the gold to back it up and we are just printing more money. wait till the pay comes when we have to back up our payments, we cant just print money and everything be fine. this is what amazes me the most just print more money. question just print everyone that works a million dollars. after all its only money no real value to it.And we will spend the money unlike the banks who are putting the money a SIDE AND NOT LOANING IT OUT…try getting a loan now,,ha ha.
I guess American politics has gotten to the point where you can be a lying sack of crap and still be considered a “good” politician.
At the moment, I’m more pissed off at Barney Frank than I am at Obama. Rather than asking the questions, ol’ Barn ought to be answering some about how that no-bonuses provision was changed or deleted from the stimulus bill. HuffPo reminds us it was done in committee, “in secret” (more accurately, “at the last second”). Obama had wanted it in, iirc, and I remember being pissed off (and surprised) that it was removed.
Just curious… is Liddy of AIG related to G. Gordon? Now that would be funny. In a very dark sort of way.
its all play money any way we dont have the gold to back it up
Ha ha ha, Ron Paul troll! Excuse me while I go invest in Reynolds Wrap.
At the moment, I’m more pissed off at Barney Frank than I am at Obama. Rather than asking the questions, ol’ Barn ought to be answering some about how that no-bonuses provision was changed or deleted from the stimulus bill.
Time to redirect your anger then, because what happened is that Congress, specifically Chris Dodd, wanted to put in an amendment to the bailout that would have prevented these bonuses from being paid out, and the Obama administration strong-armed him and others in Congress to take that provision out.
After several days of dishonestly claiming that Dodd was at fault, the administration has finally admitted that they did the deed, although even on the Leno broadcast last night Obama made it sound like his people had no hand in it. This was a major screwup for Obama, which I suspect happened because he naively thought AIG’s bigwigs wouldn’t be so greedy and tone-deaf as to try to give themselves huge bonuses. That was dumb, and he should admit it was a dumb mistake and take his lumps and then go out and try to fix the problem.
Mind you, the Republicans wanted no oversight and no bonus stopping whatsoever yet are trying to act as if they would have stopped this from happening. Obama’s position was more sensible, just naive. But he shouldn’t be dishonest about this.
It’s that “we’re angry too” coupled with the short memories of most that let’s the leopards go unnoticed while changing their spots.
I wonder whether this might not afford the chance for some political jiu jitsu. Did Obama use Geithner and other appointees who were neck deep in bailed out players in the financial industry? Well, the Republicans are calling for Geithner’s head.
Ever notice how easy it was in the old westerns to herd the lynch mob in one direction or another? Politics works like this. So duhhh! YEAH!!! And after we get rid of Geithner we’ll really show those greedy bastards. We can call it RTC.
So I wonder whether Obama is a fox or the inveterate moderate.
I was posting in reverse time order and had not read “Chaos and Opportunity”. Hadn’t been here in weeks…
Was the taxpayer money that just sort of disappeared just a ploy to enrage the lynch mob? Probably not. We also used to ascribe genius to the Bush adminsitration, albeit evil genius.