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While Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the U.S. government is demanding that the AIG pay back extravagant bonuses, some suggest he should have known about the "retention compensation" since he was NY Federal Reserve chairman when the government bailed out the insurer. Senator Christopher Dodd even said that the Treasury forced him to add language to the stimulus bill that created a loophole preserving the bonuses. The NY Times's feature on Geithner calls this a "defining moment," reporting how he works 15 hour days and that he's doing a lot of work "without the usual complement of Treasury assistants because of administration delays in vetting potential nominees — a consequence in part of its efforts to avoid embarrassments like the disclosures of Mr. Geithner’s past tax lapses." Political consultant Joe Trippi tells Politico that Geithner needs to fight back or else, "Some of this anger that is dissipated when it is aimed at AIG or Treasury could start to take a toll on the president and the White House."
More Pressure, More Scrutiny For Geithner
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Sigh. Always looking for somebody to blame aren't we?
Geithner was not the one who approved the contracts regarding the bonuses. The Administration can do very little to rescind them anyway short of an Act of Congress (Which in itself is on slippery legal footing)
Get off the man's Jock and let him do his job.
"Geithner was not the one who approved the contracts regarding the bonuses. The Administration can do very little to rescind them anyway short of an Act of Congress"
QFT. While Geithner and Obama have obviously not been perfect, blaming them for this is simply misguided.
"Geithner was not the one who approved the contracts regarding the bonuses. "
"Treasury Learned of AIG Bonuses Earlier Than Claimed"
"Although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders on Tuesday that he learned of AIG's impending $160 million bonus payments to members of its troubled financial-products unit on March 10, sources tell TIME that the New York Federal Reserve informed Treasury staff that the payments were imminent on Feb. 28.
That is 10 days before Treasury staffers say they first learned "full details" of the bonus plan, and three days before the Administration launched a new $30 billion infusion of cash for AIG."
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1886138,00.html
And
"The accusation against Dodd is that there is nothing the Obama administration can do about the AIG bonus payments because Dodd inserted a clause into the stimulus bill which exempted executive compensation agreements entered into before February, 2009 from the compensation limits imposed on firms receiving bailout funds. Thus, this accusation asserts, it was Dodd's amendment which explicitly allowed firms like AIG to make bonus payments that were promised before the stimulus bill was enacted.
That is simply not what happened. What actually happened is the opposite. It was Dodd who did everything possible -- including writing and advocating for an amendment -- which would have applied the limitations on executive compensation to all bailout-receiving firms, including AIG, and applied it to all future bonus payments without regard to when those payments were promised.
But it was Tim Geithner and Larry Summers who openly criticized Dodd's proposal at the time and insisted that those limitations should apply only to future compensation contracts...
...Can that be any clearer? It was Obama officials, not Dodd, who demanded that already-vested bonus payments be exempted. "
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/17/dodd/
Learning of != approved.
As for the amendment, it's really irrelevant. It was an ex post facto law and could not have been enforced (you cannot outlaw something that has occurred in the past).
"As for the amendment, it's really irrelevant. It was an ex post facto law and could not have been enforced (you cannot outlaw something that has occurred in the past)."
Constitution? Obama don't need no stinkin' Constitution!
No youtube here, so you'll have to explain, if you were trying to make a serious point..
Buy some speakers or a $3 headphone with your Obamabucks.
a/Obama thinks the constitution is flawed.
b/ Lookup ex post facto and bill of attainder.
c/ Obama / Geithner / Dodd knew ALL about the bonuses when they were writing the bailout and while they were sitting on the 700K donated to Dems by AIG.
BONUS! " top ten political recipients of AIG donations for the 2008 election"
From From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/18/aigs-political-donations/?eref=ib_politicalticker
(CNN) — As Congress grills AIG's chief executive Wednesday, here's a look at the top ten political recipients of AIG donations for the 2008 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The top ten recipients of AIG donations for the 2008 election cycle:
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut: $103,100
President Barack Obama: $101,332
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona: $59,499
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: $35,965
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana: $24,750
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney: $20,850
Vice President Joe Biden: $19,975
Rep. John Larson, D-Connecticut: $19,750
Sen. John Sununu, R-New Hampshire: $18,500
FormerpPresidential candidate Rudy Giuliani: $13,200
He's been doing his job terribly thus far.
Based on what exactly? No one expects the man to pull a rabbit out of his ass and stabilize the Economy in 2 Months.
I truly believe regardless of who takes the job and what actions they take, they'll be given a hard time anyway, especially by feckless Politicians.
No one expected a Treasury Secretary to make things better in 2 months, but he's made things WORSE for generations to come.
Every "plan" they've come up with is just going to make things worse. I'd prefer they get out of the way and go back to promoting price stability and protecting the value of our money. Instead, he's complicit in the devaluation of our currency and for every dollar bill his lithographed signature is on, it's just another contract that he's going to break.
"he's made things WORSE for generations to come."?
That's a little bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?
Simply put: no one really knows what the outcome of the stimulus packages will be for quite some time. No one really knows if it will make things worse or if it will help.
IMO, It's just too soon to make that call it either way.
Related: I've noticed the usual talking heads on TV that were quick to blame the daily market down turns on Pres. Obama are quiet when it does moderately well for a few days.
No. At the risk of devolving into a Keynesian vs. Austrian debate, in the history of mankind deficit spending has never worked. It only reduces the standard of living as productivity is stymied through a confiscation of wealth and credit.
So history tell us that Obama and his crew are setting us up for long term failure to shore up things in the short term.
Bottomless Chips in 1777: "This debt will ruin our new nation!"
Deficit spending has been going on since the founding of the country. While there are certainly valid concerns about the current levels of debt and deficit (concerns that I share), to say that "in the history of mankind deficit spending has never worked" is simply more hyperbole.
He may be working harder but not smarter.