Monday, March 16, 2009

MOTU JOB SECURITY

Robert Reich makes this observation about the AIG bonuses:
But if our very own Secretary of the Treasury doesn't even learn of the bonuses until months after AIG has decided to pay them, and cannot make stick his decision that they should not be paid, AIG is not even accountable to the government. That means AIG's executives -- using $170 billion of our money, so far -- are accountable to no one.

One of the reasons AIG may not be accountable is what I'll call "contractual irreplaceability." Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) looked into AIG's retention plan and found a scenario that AIG used as an example why the bonuses must be paid. The scenario states that if a couple of executives at AIGFP’s Banque AIG subsidiary quit because they weren't getting their money, that could trigger a default in the securities, leading to systemic failure.

Nice trick, huh?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I believe the bonus payout excesses at AIG are just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening with the other Wall Street bailouts including Bank of America. Working productive Americans are bailing out the same crooks that destroyed our economy along with 45% of the wealth in the world. Now the American taxpayers and our posterity will be forced to live a far lower standard of living with reduced prosperity and opportunities due to the accumulated national debt to fund the bailouts and once again we will pay the price.

Washington has bailed out the banks, Wall Street & their Washington special interests and much of the cost is added to the national debt to by paid by this and future generations while real estate and investments continue to fall. I believe Washington plans to monetize the debt in future years while they tax and destroy our remaining wealth by depreciating the dollar.

To stop this wealth attack, the Campaign to Cancel the Washington National Debt By 12/21/2012 Constitutional Amendment is beginning now in the U.S. See: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67594690498&ref=ts