Manage Your Life
Saturday, December 12, 2009
AIG: Would half the bonus money returned be better than none?
editor
On the hot seat with
Congress today, AIG's CEO Edward Liddy said he had
asked the employees of the insurance giant's financial products
unit who received bonuses of $100,000 or more to return "at
least half of those payments."
In a year when so many people are unemployed and those still
employed couldn't even hope for a bonus when pay freezes are
becoming standard procedure, it's the least AIG can do since
the $165 million in bonuses should never have been paid out to
begin with. The financial products group is the unit that
specialized in risky derivatives--complex financial contracts tied
to assets like mortgages--which helped fuel this current economic
collapse. Shouldn't bonuses be awarded for a job well done, not
doled out no matter what happens?
Of the 418 employees who received bonuses, 298 got more than
$100,000, according to Andrew Cuomo, New York's attorney
general. The highest bonus? $6.4 million. Six others received
received more than $4 million. Fifteen other people received
bonuses of more than $2 million and 51 received $1 million to $2
million. Some--who knows how many--already had said they would not
take their bonuses, Liddy told the unimpressed Congressional
committee.
Are you impressed? Would the return of half of the exhorbitant
bonuses be enough to quell your anger about AIG's clueless use
of taxpayer money?
Related: money, bonuses, bailout, aig
-
Posted by elvagreen49 Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:08pm PDT
I found a great site """"" WealthyRomances com """""" It 's where you have the opportunity dreaming about dating a millionaire and make it true! I thought everyone needed to meet some miracle after all the terrible stuff in the news and the economy :)
Report Abuse
-
Posted by CarolB Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:40pm PDT
absolutely not! all of it should be returned. It is the taxed peoples money that they are spending and I am sure the tax payer could think of better things to do with that money! Give us a tax break, feed a hungry child, health care, etc!!
Report Abuse
-
Posted by Jessie B Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:42pm PDT
why do tese people think they are so much better than the average person . there is know one worth that kind of money ,just as a bones.put that money back in the company so it doesnt go broke help econome going and people working. thank you for your time
Report Abuse
-
Posted by opiniononly Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:11pm PDT
Returning less than all the money would not mitigate the offensiveness of paying the bonuses out in the first place, but any return is better than nothing.
Report Abuse
-
Posted by Shannon Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:56pm PDT
all the money should come back to the taxpayers, The idiots recieving it should no better also. There is no excuse
Report Abuse
-
Posted by ladybella04 Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:02pm PDT
I love that these guys are patting themselves on the back and taking bonuses for failure. You can only do that if you are rich. When the rest of us fail in business, we pay the price. So, I guess that 1/2 is better than none, but still pretty sickening if you ask me.
On the upside: I just realized that I am more successful than all those top executives. I might not have millions of dollars to compensate me for my personal failures in life, but I also didn't cost the government and taxpaying citizens billions of dollars in bailout money. I might owe 30K (cump change to these people, no doubt), but my payments get made on time, thx. It didn't cost billions of dollars for me to get a grip on my life, the way it did for those guys. Yeah, they're the winners, all right. Oh yeah.
Report Abuse
-
Posted by kw Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:34pm PDT
Why do we have to pay congress? Congress has screwed Americans over and over.
Congress signed these bailouts. With Congress it is just more lies and finger pointing.
Stop the bailouts. Stop trying to control everything.
Report Abuse
-
Posted by TLD7996 Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:43pm PDT
I find the bail out offensive , on its face. And adding insult to injury, the ppl responsible for AIG's failure are rewarded more money than i will ever see, in my life time, for letting AIG fail and bringing this country to its financial knees. But lets get down to the "real" issue: My American government, basically bent over for AIG. AIG threatened *MY* government, saying that it (AIG) basically held our financial future in its hands, and the government *drank the kool-aid*. They basically handed over, what $170b, no questions asked. Basically AIG held us hostage, and congress paid the ransom, only to have AIG comeback to the well and ask for more, as well as set the stage for other large financial institutions follow suit.
I don't know about anyone else, but, if anyone came to me asking for a loan, of such magnitude, i'd have to ask, firstly, what the funds were needed for, and how it was going to be spent, as well as how, and when the funds were going to be re-paid. In my opinion, had anyone in congress asked a few questions, we might not be in the pickle we're in, maybe. And, what ever happened to the idea of our elected politicians actually doing their jobs, ie looking after the best interests of the constituents that elected them into office, and not looking out over a select few ppl, or groups of ppl.
As far as i'm concerned, congress has again failed us, the american ppl, the ppl they are supposed to work for, the ppl that elected them into office, the ppl who pay their salaries. And, in my opinion, if any of the AIG exec's keep a penny of those bonuses, i hope they burn in he!!
Report Abuse
-
Posted by Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:53pm PDT
Spoiled & greed behavior will only lead to destructions...
Report Abuse
-
Posted by WilliamM Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:05am PDT
Aww...poor babies! They make more money than you! How dare they? Burn them at the stake!
Envy isn't pretty.
These bonuses were contractual obligations. Do you know what happens when you try to wriggle out of a contract? You get sued. And the courts WILL find against you and order you to honor it. And probably add penalties and court costs to that original obligation.
Ob-li-gat-tion, people. Legal requirement. As in "not optional". As in, you don't have the choice of not paying them.
Obama is pandering outrageously to the ignorant emotions of the naive on this issue. That's YOU, folks, from what I'm reading here. If he is actually demanding that AIG or anyone else refuse to honor a legally binding contract merely because Congress was idiotic enough to hand government monies over with no strings attached, he's a demagogue of the worst sort. And if YOU are applauding it, you are idiots...
And NO, I do not work for AIG or in the financial industry, I do not receive performance bonuses and I am not "rich" by any stretch of the imagination. I just have a working knowledge of civil law, as apparently none of you do...
Any other laws you'd like the President to repeal by fiat? You know, the way everyone insisted Bush did---and criticized for it?
Good grief.
Report Abuse
