Two weeks after AIG bailout, execs party in style (!!!)

[Holly_Hobby]

Financial crisis? What financial crisis?



Less than two weeks after Uncle Sam gave American International Group (AIG) an $85 billion loan - staving off financial collapse - execs from one of its insurance subsidiaries, AIG American General, gathered for a conference at the uber-swank St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort, billed as “California’s only Mobil Travel Guide Five-Star Resort,” where ocean-view rooms start at $565 a night and “world class luxury” is the rule.

On Friday, before the presidential debate got under way, caterers for the St. Regis were setting up dozens of tables on the grounds of Mission San Juan Capistrano for AIG American General’s sumptuous off-site dinner. Tables were draped with soft Tuscan-gold tablecloths that cascaded to the
grass; elegant fresh flower centerpiece graced each table; and what appeared to be fine crystal stemware, at least from a distance, glistened in the fading light.

Workers set up a lengthy bar stocked with bottles of liquor. A half-dozen tall space heaters stood sentinel in case the evening turned cool. There was a large center stage with lighting and a sound system, and once the sun went down, the whole scene took on a magical patina as tiny white lights twinkled in the trees.

The Watchdog - and the Outraged Taxpayer who alerted us to the situation - understand that corporate events such as these are planned many months in advance. I mean, really. Who could have known in the spring that there’d be Financial Armageddon in the fall? But still. “The inappropriateness and the excessiveness just blew us away,” said the Outraged Taxpayer, who went to the Mission Friday to pray in the chapel. “It’s outrageous. In very poor taste. Over the top.”

,,,



http://taxdollars.freedomblogging.com/2008/10/02/after-...

[dana_b]

1. very nice, how lovely for them....

I expect we'll be seeing a lot more of this now. their colleagues just got a $850 billion dollar bonus... did you hear??

[msongs]

2. hey the dems and repubs in congress gave em 700 BILLION to spend there nt

[Blecht]

3. You can't expect them to stay at a Hyatt

Or a Marriott (gasp!).

[tabasco]

4. How much caviar does 700 billion buy anyway?

We better scrape up a few billion more for gas for the yachts too.

[dana_b]

6. don't forget the escorts!!

wouldn't want the poor guys to get lonely!

[Union Thug]

5. I won't say what I'm thinking. But you can probably guess. n/t

[lostnotforgotten]

7. OK Bailout Supporters - You Were Duped - Are You Now Happy That We're Screwed

eom

[IDemo]

8. UPDATE: AIG CEO: May Need More Money From Government Credit Line

October 03, 2008: 09:40 AM EST

By Lavonne Kuykendall
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Despite receiving an $85 billion line of credit from the Federal Reserve, American International Group Inc. (AIG) is still seeing tightness in the marketplace, said Edward Liddy, the company's chairman and chief executive Friday.

The insurance giant has already drawn down $61 billion of the amount, and about $53 billion or $54 billion of that has gone toward collateral calls on its derivatives business, Liddy said.

Other cash has been used for other needs, particularly as the credit market has frozen, Liddy said. "Our CP (commercial paper) lines have dried up," which has happened throughout the market, he said during an investor update that was Webcast Friday.

He said he could "never say never" to a potential need for more money. Borrowing on the Fed credit line will go up.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200...

[Holly_Hobby]

9. OMG I AM SO EFFING MAD!!! n/t

[Hannah Bell]

10. Sure are a lot of rooms in that hotel. Sure must be a lot of rich people

living off other people's sweat.

[pork medley]

21. must we demonize people for living well? really, how does such talk

advance the interests of the democrats (i.e., monied interests)

after all, sour grapes won't fill our bellies

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fascisthunter]

37. If You Wish to Be Docile and Subservient so Be It

This isn't about sour grapes... that's a very common give away

[Leopolds Ghost]

31. Well, there are billions of people in the world.

Anthropic fallacy (observation bias) dictates that it will seem like many people in America are well-off and these St. Regis folks, not especially so. But they are in fact a tiny and segregated (hence concentrated) minority.

[OhioChick]

11. Grrr.....

[Tutonic]

12. Guess Osama Bin Laden had a point huh?

N/T

[DB1]

13. Hey Freeper trolls take alook at this, YOU will never afford this but we all are paying for it!

Thanks to your high and mighty W. Worse President in history.

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. Well "Thank God" it passed!

Praise be to the greedy fucks among us!

[wellstone dem]

15. Now wait just a minute, it might be that they didn't have

ocean front rooms.

[KG]

29. i guess the local Motel 6 was already booked?

[Leopolds Ghost]

34. Given the quality of America's built environment and lax standards of taste,

it seems from that overhead photo that the Motel 6 (and the gas station, and the used car lot) were right next door on the interstate that appears to separate this "luxury resort" from the ocean.

[Chulanowa]

16. And the coup is complete.

I'm giving the U.S. two more years, then I'm kicking myself over to Europe. This is intolerable, and if our elected officials won't do anything about it even with all the pressure from us, then there's no hope.

[MisterP]

17. I drive by that place a lot: it always makes me think of

a house that one of Poul Anderson's uninentionally-Harkonnenesque merchant princes would own (and rent out as an elitist resort, of course).
Hope they don't have any orgies like Tyco's execs.
(barf)

[Azlady]

18. So while those Rich SOB's

are partying on MY money, YOUR money.... I'm busy selecting the color of my new home..... I'm debating which would be best.... white or brown cardboard box?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This REALLY pisses me off!

[20score]

19. I refuse to believe any of this bailout money will be abused!

If the last eight years has taught us anything, it's that government and captains of industry are above reproach!

[TreasonousBastard]

20. OK, here I go again, trying to spoil...

another DU hissyfit, but the insurance part of AIG didn't get the bailout and has been highly profitable on its own.

Perhaps the timing of this particular meeting was unfortunate, but insurance companies do have annual management meetings, and they are not held at local motels. The largest insurance company in the world presumably organized this meeting long before the bad news of that other subsidary and had it where they considered appropriate for their importance in the field. In fact, just about all companies have these management meetings, and most do it up. Having been at a few of them myself, although not at the highest levels, I did feel that they were spending a bit much on them, but, in the grand scheme of things, it was really peanuts to multi-billion dollar companies.

Yes, Virginia, there are people and companies that actually make a lot of money, and spend some of it in style. No amount of whining and sour grapes about your not making a lot of money will change that.

[Two Americas]

24. that's it

Sour grapes and whining. That is all it is. Oh those stupid peasants - they are just envious.

Hear that all you loser Democrats! You just are expressing sour grapes because YOU are not making a lot of money!

Bunch of losers with all of that social justice stuff and complaining about the culture of greed.

[TreasonousBastard]

26. That's right, and I'll say it again...

there's a big difference between fighting for social justice and whining about people doing better than you are.

[dailykoff]

25. Thinking up ways to blow through $85 bil is hard work.

They deserve a rest.

[Lucky Luciano]

35. Most of the money was for posting collateral.

AIG had a AAA rating for a long time, so when they did trades they only had to post a small amount of collateral. When they got downgraded, they were forced to post a LOT more collateral on their outstanding trades. Many Many Billions. That is where the majority of the money went - to post collateral.

[Holly_Hobby]

27. Kick n/t

[TexasObserver]

28. Hey! They're solving the liquidity crisis! Ask the bailout advocates here.

How could giving free money to Bush cronies go wrong?

[Leopolds Ghost]

32. Actually, that argument is exactly the argument Republicans and some Dems are making.

They have not come out and disputed that this is "trickle down" plantation economics, like ancient Rome or antebellum South where all the income is from plantations elsewhere and the trash sharecroppers/feudal serfs (i.e. the rest of us) spend our lives feeding off of the economy generated by luxury expenditures of the ruling caste, and hence emotionally dependent on our financial captors (and constantly aspiring to be a member of the elite caste, and opposing anything that would enlarge it and hence dilute the potential pot of gold among more winners).

Ask any American if they'd rather see a smaller pot in lotteries if it meant more winners. They've done studies on this.

People want an alpha male system as long as they have some small chance of seeing themselves (or their genetic offspring) become the alpha dogs. Until then, they live vicariously, and are willing to accept credit from the wealthy to maintain their own comfortable lifestyle which, in the absence of productive jobs on these shores, merely cushions America's wealthy from having to live in a place like Detroit. But this is no mere welfare money -- the American people are expected to owe more and more each year to maintain our resource-intensive lifestyle in the face of our lack of any productive value for our labor (myself included) until they/we become serfs.

[L0oniX]

30. So months ago they planned this event even though they were in financial trouble...

Sounds to me like they knew that they were going to get bailed out in advance.

[earth mom]

33. Bastards!

[fascisthunter]

36. Seriously.... Replace the Bull with a Golden Guilotine

just as a symbolic reminder for Wall Street