NPR sheds new light on AIG BONUSES (for me at least)

[polichick]

In all the hoopla about AIG the question of WHY these employees were given bonus contracts seems to be going unanswered.

Caught the end of an NPR piece this evening and learned something I hadn't heard before ~ that these bonus contracts were written last spring because the company still expected to get itself out of trouble and believed that the people who made the mess were the only ones who understood their dealings enough to correct them. The bonus contracts were meant to keep them from abandoning ship.

Just fyi.

[liberal N proud]

1. The Auto unions had to make concessions why not these creeps?

Whats good for the little guy should be good for the rich bag as well.

[polichick]

3. I agree - just explaining how it happened.

[Double T]

2. Bonuses to criminals so they can provide confessions for their corrupt deals.......

and malfeasance. Only in FU america.

[Xipe Totec]

5. Or protection money to the mafia n/t

[polichick]

7. Absolutely criminals!

[customerserviceguy]

4. Ok, so it didn't work

why are they getting the bonuses? And why did PIG let them get into that position in the first place? If the bonuses need to be paid, they should get ripped right out of the compensation that the muckety-mucks took for themselves last year.

Yes, I'm talking clawback. Shareholders can file suit for malfeasance of corporate officers, since the US is now a majority shareholder in PIG, they have standing.

[polichick]

6. They'll find a way to stop it I think - several economists have offered solutions.

[OwnedByFerrets]

8. There was also something else said on NPR this afternoon that was interesting

The administration keeps saying that they cant break these contracts, but they have no problems in having bankruptcy judges abrogate the contracts that have been struck with home borrowers. The government says these can be abrogated, but in AIG's case we cant??

You can listen to the entire interview with Teri Gross here: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=101936770&m=101939674

[polichick]

9. That really is interesting! Thanks for the link.

[thevoiceofreason]

12. If AIG went into bankruptcy court, they could do it too

That has been the bugaboo with which we have been dealing -- The "They are too big to fail and if they do they will take down western civilization and by declaring bankruptcy, they will fail."

[OwnedByFerrets]

14. They dont have to go into 13 though. A lesser degree would do it.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

19. Yes, because they're in bankruptcy and AIG isn't.

[ejpoeta]

28. and when the auto companies were begging for help....

they were fully expected to deal with the employees... now, there were contracts there, but the contracts for the auto workers weren't considered sacred. it's baloney. the whole thing. It's like obama said... if the government didn't step in with taxpayer money to keep them afloat, they would not be around to pay bonuses to anyone. It's ridiculous. Can't they just go in and take over and sell off or spin off that part of the company with the bonus issues?? It's done all the time, finding a way to get around paying bonuses and such.

[Parker CA]

10. That's why they have been termed, 'retention payments' by AIG execs. n/t.

[FailureToCommunicate]

11. Clawback!! There will be blood! So... these AIG guys took our lunch money and

buried it somewhere and we have to PAY them to find it and dig it up? Oh, and the best part: after we pay them the millions they say "Opps! can't seem to find the money.. bye bye"

[FrenchieCat]

13. So many new DUers lately,

so little time!

[FailureToCommunicate]

30. Thanks! Gosh, am I still "new"? I don't feel new. I wish I had heard about DU

long before I did. And I didn't post comments for a long time, and I don't post many as it is. (Although my teenage sons
think I'm "blogging" )
Congratulations on your daughter surviving Harvard.

[closeupready]

15. But I still don't get why a company wouldn't protect itself by saying,

"okay, if we do get into big trouble financially, we may have to cut, in part or even in whole, these bonuses. THOUGH THAT IS EXTREMELY UNLIKELY." You ALWAYS write an out into these contracts to give yourself leverage in case of 'unforeseeable' circumstances. If what they are claiming it true, then they did not have ANY such outs.

[polichick]

24. That's a good point. It's unbelievable that the contracts were granting all that money...

...for employees just to stay, regardless of outcome. What a racket!

[question everything]

16. Also, that AIG sent many of their bailout money to other banks

that, in turn, did not have to set aside cash balance and could continue to make those risky loans.

This whole thing stinks, really.

Had we not bailed them out, they would be out of a job and the whole discussion of bonuses would be moot.

I think that when we found out that as soon as AIG got the money the employees went on a retreat, this should have rang a warning bell.

[MarjorieG]

17. Another thing I learned, money from last Sept direct from Treasury, no Congressional opportunity.

Also the idea of just carving out the bad speculative, derivative part with these bonuses. Just part nationalization. Politically important if Obama is to get more money.

[Life Long Dem]

18. President Obama is on the scene!

[polichick]

26. Guess we'll see today.

[RoyGBiv]

20. .

[vaberella]

21. You should have watched MSNBC, that's all they kept saying over and over again today.

Plus there were a few articles on this yesterday night in the GD and LBN section.

[polichick]

23. Interesting then that Pat Buchanan didn't know why the contracts were written...

...until two minutes ago. And the threads I saw here were about what to do about it ~ not about the origins of the contracts.

Why be so snarky anyway ~ jeez!

[vaberella]

31. You read my post as snark? Far from it.

I was just stating a fact. I was more tired of hearing about the origins all day because my night ended at 12am before I posted here with Rachel Maddow saying the same thing. So, you read my post incorrectly.

On another note...Pat Buchanan is also the man who said that no President before President Obama took off their jacket in the oval office. While pictures of Reagan, Bush Jr., Carter, Clinton et al walked around without jackets.

And as I stated, early Monday morning around 3am there were posts in the GD and LBN sections which had the posted the reasons. But as I stated, it was stated on MSNBC by all the newscasters AFTER Morning Joe. It could not be missed.

[polichick]

32. So what if YOU were tired of it?? When I was online it was all about what to do...

...not the origins. If you're tired of the subject, just move on to the next.

[vaberella]

33. What is your deal...

You read into my statement when my reply did not imply anything of the sort. As I stated before and I'll state it again since you hear it on NPR and no where else. It was clearly stated several times on MSNBC, end of point. You may not have watched or don't watch MSNBC...so YOU wouldn't have heard it being said. However, your post gave me the impression that you were looking for the information in many places and never found it until NPR. I was posting the contrary.

And when I said I was tired of it. It wasn't the bloody topic. I was tired of hearing the answering all over MSNBC because they were all starting to parrot each other. Especially if one spends the day watching the channel it's a long echo---with nothing original. That was my only point.

However, it seems you want to be offended. So go ahead. I'm tired of clarifying.

[ProSense]

22. Here is what I learned today

AIG lies.

[polichick]

25. The amazing thing to me is how they consider these "talented" people...

...the "best and the brightest" ~ in what other situation do we reward thieves with bonuses?!

[ejpoeta]

29. yep, you ruined the company.... here's millions of dollars.

[WinkyDink]

27. What a crock.

[gauguin57]

34. If I knew one of these guys lived in my neighborhood, I'd be on the public sidewalk with a sign ...

... a pitchfork and a torch.

Just reminding him or her what a disgusting human being I think he or she is for taking a bonus in the middle of all this. DIS-GUS-TING.

[Overseas]

35. Isn't that nice of NPR to defend AIG. Awwwww.

But that's why I limit my NPR (Now Primarily Republican) radio listening.

Yes I had heard elsewhere that golly, gee, they wrote those contracts before they crashed the economy.

It is a pity that NPR didn't mention how peculiar it still was that those contracts promised bonuses whether or not the traders participated in bankrupting the organization.

But golly, AIG was worried about losing that fabulous talent that destroyed our economy. So NPR helped the PR companies they hired with our bailout money to get the word out. Isn't that sweet of them?

Just trying to be "fair and balanced" I guess. Poor AIG was just trying to save those remarkably talented folks who went wild with their credit default swapping. Whatever would we have done without them?

I still listen to some NPR but am regularly irked by their inclusion of Republican propaganda points without the requisite balance in the other direction. Like just saying how it defies logic that a company would even want to reward staff who helped sink the company when the rest of us have had more modest bonuses reduced when our companies didn't do well in a particular year.