Treasury Thinks Bailout Loss Will Be Smaller, AIG Whines About Pay

The #1 issue has and always will be JOBS. Rather than addressing this issue first, Big Banks, Greedy automakers, and Wall Street goons cut in the TARP welfare line and gobbled up the lions share of the resources. What did we get in return besides their 200 billion dollar left-overs? The Housing and Auto industries are still sinking. The answer is simple; people with jobs BUY houses and cars. People without jobs LOSE houses and cars (see: http://www.repofinder.com). If the President wants to keep his job, he better make sure we keep ours.

Amen. Paulson, Geithner, and Bernanke & Co. ran up the wrong hill in Sept. 2008 and Obama, who knows nothing about business, blindly followed them later. The Chinese got stimulus right: they spent $1 trillion on the kinds of job creation and support investments that have allowed them to continue growing. Yes, the big banks were in trouble, and yes, they needed help but instead of clearing their balance sheets and auctioning the debt later, they BOUGHT the debt. Idiots!

just shut these assholes down. they are doing nothing for society yet sucking us dry of our tax dollars. just please let this zombie die.

Dear Robert Benmosche,

Since We are paying for all your salaries, I will give you a raise if you **** me.

Sign

Taxpayer.

I'm sure most people here will disagree, but pay caps on a place like AIG make no sense. If anything, the new leadership should be paid MORE because they have a pretty ugly challenge in front of them, have to face intense public scrutiny and ridicule, and aren't just keeping watch in a gilded office like the old guard.

Tie all their compensation to performance and motivate them to solve the problem - return the company to profitability and pay back the government. People at this level aren't going to work for nothing and hiring substandard execs to try and turn around AIG is just going to make things worse. The people who can be C-level at AIG will have no problem getting a job no matter what the economy does. Why should they sign up to be a media whipping boy when they can just go back to Goldman, or go chill on a beach with their millions?

IMHO, the problem is regulating the products they can sell and the amount of risk they can assume, not how much they pay people. I'd rather have the best execs in the world fighting to get this job, rather than struggling to fill it. Course, that's harder to understand and doesn't placate angry voters.

Maurice Greenberg, the guy who put AIG together would happily go back and run it. He knows every nook and cranny...and that's why security would escort him out the building if he stepped inside.

The best execs in the world has cause this disaster in the first place.

Yes, but I believe it was a regulation issue - the risky derivatives offered the best immediate return, and were perfectly legal, so were the clear choice to drive profits. I don't think it was clear these instruments were a house of cards.

Also, the people running the company now aren't the people that drove it into the ground. Why are we punishing the people trying to fix the company? Shouldn't we give them incentives?

These geniuses couldn't even value these derivates fairly. If these geniuses perform well and return our bailout monies then the sky is the limit for them. Until then, they should be content with 1/2 million salary for no actual accomplishments except for their proclaimed geniuses.

Again, it isn't the same people running the company. You're punishing the wrong people.

Kind of like suing your current doctor for malpractice because your old doctor screwed up just because you think all doctors are equally as intelligent.

No argument that the old management screwed the pooch big time, but those people are disgraced and gone, and now there's a new team that actually has to deal with the mess. It should be worth their while to work around the clock and come up with a solution that returns the taxpayer money.

yes but they should be rewarded after they clean up this mess. We can't pay them exorbitant amounts when the job is completed. 1/2 million isn't a punishment. In this economy, they are lucky to have high paying jobs.

This all could have been avoided if the perfectly good bankruptcy laws had been allowed to work. Unfortunately, we have a socialist government now that sees these 'bail outs' as a sneaky way to nationalize the the private sector one company at a time. It's sad that so many Americans can't even recognize socialism when it is staring and laughing at them right in the face.

These companies aren't socialized since no regulation has been put forth with the bailout money. It's corrupt capitalism.

all the gov't did was cap their pay and limit their bonuses.

Current bankruptcy laws wouldn't have protected the overall economy from the failure of all the Investment banks. Being that they were the intermediaries of the financial market, the failure of these banks would've resulted in a systemic failure of the entire banking system, and since American prosperity is based on our Economy, and the Financial system is the HEART of that Economy, that would be bad, mmmkay

The government did what they had to do for the greater good, even if it meant we had to take a bite of a rather large shit sandwich.

you mean the part where the gov't lent money to financial institutions, they regained footing and paid the money back with interest? that was just horrible. aig, like the others, can pay back the taxpayer money and then return to lavish bonuses when it's paid with their money, not mine.

rightwingers conflate socialism and government oversight for their own political purposes.

Really? Goldman et. al won big by bidding up and then shorting the subsequently tanking economy, and having the downside covered by taxpayers.

Would you loan even a smart gambling addict money for a trip to Vegas? Neither would I.

This is a bastard child of capitalism and communism with the worst characteristics of both.

Too big to fail? Fine. Prop them up, then break them up. At the very least close the revolving door between GS employees and government positions.

Where is the new Glass-Steagall? Where were the indictments? BO talks a great talk, but doesn't walk the walk.

taxpayers didn't "cover" anything for GS. the gov't made 23% on the investment, but feel free to characterize it anyway you like.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a6pS.2Pr7bdQ

In case you were wondering where on earth all that money went that you shoveled into the black hole known as AIG, we now have a pretty good idea.

$13 billion of it went to Goldman Sachs

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-goldman-sachs-wins-big-in-secret-bailout-via-aig-2009-3

response to ides not kojak.

No argument here, the bailout saved the banking system. They now have to put the safeties in place, so these creeps, the bankers, don't do it again.

The unemployment problems have to be handled similarly. The banks now have to start lending to small business which create most new jobs.

you can't be a free market cheerleader while sucking my taxpayer teat...that tickles.

let AIG crash and burn, they have no gratitude in them.

Anyone else here for the separation of economy and State?