Ok, so let me get this straight. So the man who runs the perpetually-PR-challenged insurance giant AIG was hand-picked by the US Government.
The US Government (that would be you, me, and the other taxpayers) now owns 80% of AIG.
I don't know about you, but if I own 80% of a business and I hand-pick the guy to manage my operation's day-to-day activities, I would want to know about any substantial cash outlays he was planning to make.
And in fact, AIG is subject to a wide variety of regulators (insurance, banking, securities) as well as increased public scrutiny due to the $170,000,000,000+ in taxpayer bailouts AIG has received to date.
So you look me in the eye and tell me that the $100B+ that went out the back door to almost 80 companies and municipalities (including $37.5B to four foreign-owned banks) went entirely without notice and approval by that very same US Government, I will tell you that you are deluding yourself.
AIG is a convenient scapegoat, and the money made it to its intended destinations (including politically powerful Goldman Sachs, and the Democrat-held state of California). Who intended said money to go to those places is up for debate, but I assure you every penny of it went on purpose, directed by the actual owners of the company (the people who run our Government).
The outrage over the $1B in (contractually mandated) bonus payments is way of saying "hey, look over here! not over there!" Don't believe it? Sound too conspiracy-theorist to you? See if the media and politicians can work up any anger over back-door bailouts of foreign-owned banks. You won't find it.
That's very interesting. Even sophisticated business people are hard pressed to know exactly what the heck is going on there. I have a feeling that someone is making out like a bandit, and it isn't the taxpayer. I'm not even sure it's the AIG execs. As far as I'm concerned a business should be able to pay its employees obseen amounts if it can afford to do so. It would seem that in this case it cannot afford to, nor should Americans like you and I be footing the bill to keep the so-called worldwide financial market in place. I don't see any reason to believe that the global financial markets will suddenly die like salted snails if Uncle Sam isn't tugging at all the purse strings. If anything, it seems most robust when the strings of bureaucrats are detached.
ReplyDelete