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Obama stunned by bonuses given by bailed out AIG
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Topic Started: Mar 19 2009, 08:52 PM (1,140 Views)
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JustJoy
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Mar 26 2009, 04:33 PM
Post #41
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All about the fish tacos
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- Corwin8
- Mar 26 2009, 12:35 PM
- CaptDennyCrane
- Mar 25 2009, 08:31 PM
Tell it to the guy whose out there working for a living, wondering what he's going to feed his family tonight out of the empty refrigerator and freezer and has to get creative with $5 worth of ground beef and some rice and figure out how to stretch it for 2 days.
This is the also the same guy who wont see money again until next Thursday, and all but $55 of it has to cover the rent check....which by next Thursday, will be late......again.
Who gives a fuck about him? Hamburger Helper Guy? He has NOTHING to do with it. I'd tell him. If the contract says they get paid (x) no matter what happens, then they have to be paid. When legaly binding contracts are overturned on the whim of congress because of their 'outrage' (make no mistake congress knew this would happen) why bother having a contract at all? I'm not unsympathetic to the Hamburger Helper Guy, but it has ZERO to do with this issue. The Democrats in Congress knew, Obama knew, Gietner knew. Before AIG got more taxpayer money. Their fake fucking populist outrage over millions, when we are talking billions is insulting and just as fucked up as I knew these douchbags were to begin with. Dragging your Hamburger Helper, cry me a river , bullshit is not the issue and you know it. When the government steps in and tells you the contract you signed is worthless because the don't like your eye color just stand there and take it. It's the same thing they are thinking of doing to AIG. No one is saying they should overturn any contracts. What they should have done was attach strings to the bailout money and given an iou to those people with bonus contracts saying that AIG will pay them their money down the road once it's back on their feet. At a minimum they should have provided an explanation of why they let the bail out money go through without that type of a clause. I can't believe they simply didn't consider or know about these bonuses.
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Lighten up, Francis
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Dark Founder
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Mar 26 2009, 06:55 PM
Post #42
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Lt. Commander
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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090326/D975TVN80.html
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By ANNE FLAHERTY
WASHINGTON (AP) - From the White House through the halls of Congress, Washington is losing its zeal for an all-out fight over hefty executive bonuses, now that it wants the financial companies it blames for the collapse of the U.S. economy to help clean up the mess.
The House Financial Services Committee on Thursday adopted a milder alternative to a bill passed last week that would have taxed away 90 percent of employee bonuses from companies getting federal bailout money. The new legislation would let bailed-out companies pay bonuses as long as the government determines the compensation is not "unreasonable or excessive."
Just what is unreasonable or excessive would be determined by financial regulators and the Treasury Department, where Secretary Timothy Geithner set off a public furor by not blocking $165 million in AIG payments to its financial products executives and traders on March 15.
The Senate, meanwhile, has put on hold a bill that Democrats unsuccessfully tried to advance last week. It would tax away about 70 percent of the employee bonuses at AIG and other companies getting more than $100 million in bailout money.
Since last fall, AIG has received or been promised more than $182 billion of government money, much of it funneled to investors and foreign banks who held high-odds bets with the company on the U.S. housing market collapsing.
The about-face came as it become clear that financial institutions would not partner with the government on new efforts to restore vital credit flows to businesses and consumers if it meant later being demonized for its use of taxpayer dollars.
Geithner proposed on Monday a new government program that would rely on the help of private investors to buy up to a $1 trillion of bad debt, or "toxic assets," sitting on the books of major banks, giving them more ability and incentive to lend.
"I don't want people to think that businesses and people who have worked hard, performed well and received bonuses are going to be painted with the AIG brush," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday.
The gentler approach is in stark contrast to the anti-Wall Street rhetoric that consumed Congress and the White House last week after the bonus payments by AIG, the prime example of a company deemed "too big to fail" because its collapse could create a worldwide run on banks and other financial institutions.
The bonus payouts ignited populist anger that four days later prompted the House to vote 328-93 to tax them away and Obama to declare on Jay Leno's late-night talk show the same day that he was "stunned" and would "do everything we can to get those bonuses back"
By the next day, the Senate's bonus tax plan had stalled.
Obama then warned the public against vilifying investors and entrepreneurs who are needed to keep the economy alive. Geithner said industry's help would specifically be needed to buy up the billions of dollars of sour mortgage securities.
"We cannot solve this crisis without making it possible for investors to take risks," Geithner wrote in an editorial published in The Wall Street Journal.
Now, Democrats are walking a fine line. For Geithner's bank-rescue plan to work, private investors will have to trust that the government will keep up its end of the bargain. But as the flap over the AIG bonuses showed, Congress will intervene if it thinks the rules are unfair.
"Private investors need certainty that Washington will not change the rules of the game while the game is being played," said Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, who opposes the latest committee proposal.
The latest House bill, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Alan Grayson of Florida and Jim Himes of Connecticut, directs Geithner to take into account an employee's performance, as well as the stability of a financial institution, before bonuses are paid.
"We need regulation that aligns the public's interest with the health of these institutions," said Himes.
In a sort of olive branch to industry, the committee included an exemption to the rules for firms willing to participate in Geithner's investment program involving "toxic assets."
"We do want to encourage wide participation," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the panel's chairman.
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JustJoy
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Mar 26 2009, 08:43 PM
Post #43
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All about the fish tacos
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OK. I certainly stand corrected. When I said, "no one" I meant that I wasn't saying contracts should be overturned. You're right, why should the government be allowed to pick and chose and determine what's excessive. Either they are allowed to pay out the bonuses, or they are not. I think it's really too late and this is the government's way of back peddling anyway. At the end of the day, not one dollar of that bonus money will be paid back. This "outrage" is nothing more than a publicity stunt.
Edited by JustJoy, Mar 26 2009, 08:44 PM.
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Lighten up, Francis
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CaptDennyCrane
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Mar 27 2009, 01:21 PM
Post #44
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Shat Happens
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I'm tired of even talking about it.
I just want to see this bailout and stimulus actually do something besides creating bad news sound-bites and stories, and have it instead work for the people footing the bill (us tax paying citizens) with some tangible results like better industry, a stronger economy, a long lost EMPLOYEES market, not an employers market, price drops, job stability, and unemployment on a downswing.
All these people losing their jobs - they are all going to have to work somewhere - and where is that going to be?
The bad news and media are still in the back pocket of the higher powers doing their jobs keeping "we the people" at war and fighting amongst ourselves, keeping us angry and diverting attention from fixing the problem caused by all the people in charge who are desperately trying to maintain their personal status quo.
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You cant expect 110% from others, when most times, they don't expect even 90% from themselves. -- Me. No matter how hard your day, no matter how tough your choices, how complex your ethical decisions, you always get to choose what you have for lunch.
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Dark Founder
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Mar 27 2009, 04:55 PM
Post #45
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Lt. Commander
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- Quote:
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I just want to see this bailout and stimulus actually do something besides creating bad news sound-bites and stories, and have it instead work for the people footing the bill (us tax paying citizens) with some tangible results like better industry, a stronger economy, a long lost EMPLOYEES market, not an employers market, price drops, job stability, and unemployment on a downswing.
According to the CBO, it will be at least two years before this so called stimulus begins to impact the economy. In other words, it's going to be a long wait my friend.
We'll be better off just rebuilding the economy on our own (and it's going to come down to us anyways).
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