AIG: DUers... Please stop enabling THE BIGGEST FRAUD EVER

[naaman fletcher]

Please, let the bonus issue go. It is all a sideshow to distract you from the real con, please read on:


Companies go out of business all the time owing other people money. The government doesn't step in and make good on what a bankrupt company can't pay.

Now, AIG was going to go out of business owing more than $100 billion to other people and companies. Of that more than $100 billion, a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of that was owed to the employees in the form of bonuses.

Hello? Do you see the issue here? Why, of all the people AIG owed money to, are we complaing about this tiny tiny tiny tiny fraction?

The answer is obvious: To distract from the real beneficiaries here, the banks.. most explicitly Goldman Sachs (you know, the company Hank Paulson had hundreds of millions tied up in).

And when did this AIG bonus brouhaha start? Stories started leaking out about who all was paid money by AIG. And what happens? Within a day the media and politicians make a massive case over the AIG employee bonuses. Why? To distract your from all the bankers who are laughing all the way home with over ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS that they fleeced from you.

/rant off

[Bok_Tukalo]

1. Goldman Sachs? Try UBS

The same company that admitted to helping cheat the IRS.

[BuyingThyme]

2. This story is getting big only because Dems are lying their asses off.

Starting with the President.

[ihavenobias]

3. I'd frame it a little differently.

I'm somewhere in between "come on, who cares, Dems are in charge, yeah!" and "Dems are lying their asses off".

Yes, that's probably a false dichotomy, but I can't stomach the see no evil, speak no evil attitude some have regarding this administration. Specifically, the issue to me is the appointments to the economic team. Many of us (who have strongly supported this President outside of what we considered to be questionable appointments) complained about that from the start, and some of what we're seeing now is just icing on the cake we were so concerned about.

The idea that we NEEDED to put pro-deregulation, pro-Wall Street types in charge simply because they had experience (since when is bad experience a good thing?) is insulting, not to mention dangerous IMO. Aside from erasing the last 28 years of corrupt, conservative policies that created this mess, a far lesser but critical wish is that TG would be replaced with someone like Joseph Stiglitz.

Sadly that's not going to happen.

[masuki bance]

4. You keep calling Obama a liar, why?

[BuyingThyme]

6. I've called him a liar twice.

Once because he lied about withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Again for pretending to take responsibility for what he's done on the AIG front by simply saying, "The buck stops here."

[anonymous171]

5. Yes. This whole crisis never happened, like 9/11. nt

[aquart]

7. Yes, dear. We know.

[Canuckistanian]

8. Hey we're lucky there's any outrage at all

FINALLY, people are pissed off about SOMETHING.

Yes, I know it's a sliver of a fraction of a percentage point of all the money that got wasted, but maybe it will lead to MORE investigations.

If it ends here, then I'll get REALLY depressed.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Some Of That Money Is Stabilizing The Market

The bonus issue is important in the chutzpah that the Wall Street culture has and how detached they are from the damage they've created. This puts a face to the entire financial fiasco. I'd be more concerned if people shrugged their shoulders.

The recent market rise, while too little too late, has halted the on-going slide that was wiping out whatever savings and investments people had left...the markets gained back what its given up since President Obama took office. One reason for the rise...the "profits" several banks like Shiti reported for January. Wanna bet where those "profits" came from?

Maybe, just maybe the outrage over this small fleecing will get people to demand accountability for the bigger ones. Remember, this is the end-result of "Raygunomics" and the story is far from written as to the games and causes. Hopefully this pushes President Obama closer to nationalizing those toxic banks and investment houses.