Insurance giant AIG to pay $165 million in bonuses

[picantel]

American International Group is giving its executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion dollars.

The best part of all:
But he also told Geithner that he felt it could be harmful to the company if the government continued to press for reductions in executive compensation.
"We cannot attract and retain the best and brightest talent to lead and staff the AIG businesses, which are now being operated principally on behalf of the American taxpayers - if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury," Liddy said.




Don't know about you guys but they should be happy to even have a job considering the excellent job their best and brightest talent has done. Our dental plan went up this year. Our health insurance premiums went up along with the copays and everything else. Two days before our raises to keep up with inflation(which never do) we got an email stating all raises have been suspended this year. That raise just kept us even with the expanding costs and now we, like many of you, get to wonder where to make up that money. To make things worse, after paying out a couple grand in federal taxes that go to the people who started the recession in the first place we now somehow for the first time ever owe another $500. Same exemptions. Less pay. More taxes. **** them.

[daggerkobe]

Glad I canceled my auto insurance with them.

[shantystar]

American International Group is giving its executives tens of millions of dollars in new bonuses even though it received a taxpayer bailout of more than $170 billion dollars.

The best part of all:
But he also told Geithner that he felt it could be harmful to the company if the government continued to press for reductions in executive compensation.
"We cannot attract and retain the best and brightest talent to lead and staff the AIG businesses, which are now being operated principally on behalf of the American taxpayers - if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury," Liddy said.




Don't know about you guys but they should be happy to even have a job considering the excellent job their best and brightest talent has done. Our dental plan went up this year. Our health insurance premiums went up along with the copays and everything else. Two days before our raises to keep up with inflation(which never do) we got an email stating all raises have been suspended this year. That raise just kept us even with the expanding costs and now we, like many of you, get to wonder where to make up that money. To make things worse, after paying out a couple grand in federal taxes that go to the people who started the recession in the first place we now somehow for the first time ever owe another $500. Same exemptions. Less pay. More taxes. **** them.

hummmm!payday!

[pavyracer]

Wang Tang Sweet Poontang!

[Slim]

I'm surprised nobody has gone into AIG's building and shot up the place.

[daggerkobe]

Don't worry fellas.... O's got dis.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama declared Monday that insurance giant American International Group is in financial straits because of "recklessness and greed" and said he intends to stop it from paying out millions in executive bonuses.

"It's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay," Obama said at the outset of an appearance to announce help for small businesses hurt by the deep recession.

"How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat," the president said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/ap_on_go_pr_wh/aig_outrage;_ylt=Ah5MSimd._hWG4YTQo1Qr_QGw_IE;_ylu=X3oDMTJlZmVjbXJuBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwMzE2L2FpZ19vdXRyYWdlBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA29iYW1hd2lsbHRyeQ--

[MonkeyF0cker]

It's because derivative traders' salaries are highly dependent on bonuses. If it's going to the CEO or the board, I'm all for putting a nix on it. But if the bonuses are going to traders, then there is no question that they should be awarded the money. Most traders are paid a standard flat salary and are given bonuses for performance. It's no different than many athletes' contracts. This should be a non-issue.

[losturmarbles]

It's because derivative traders' salaries are highly dependent on bonuses. If it's going to the CEO or the board, I'm all for putting a nix on it. But if the bonuses are going to traders, then there is no question that they should be awarded the money. Most traders are paid a standard flat salary and are given bonuses for performance. It's no different than many athletes' contracts. This should be a non-issue.

wow i agree with monkeyfocker

why is this a ****in news story?? outrage??

shit like this makes me sick.

all these nimwits don't understand it's in AIG and the tax payer's best interest to reward performance. now they want to tax 100% of the bonuses.
theyre worried about 1/10 of 1% of the tarp money they handed over to AIG. and for what?
all it does is force the talent to some other company that isnt going to screw them over. and AIG gets the workforce leftovers and a guaranteed failure.

the idea of goverment trying to recoup the bonuses and using it as a political vehicle to demagogue the private sector makes me sick.

[wtf]

you mean the derivative traders that put the company into bankruptcy?

who cares if they leave, i am sure another loser can fill the job

[MonkeyF0cker]

Derivative traders did NOT sink AIG. Executives who leveraged the company 11:1 did. Do people still not understand the reasons behind the failures? Unreal.

[wtf]

oh the executives executed the trades? that is a new one, they also answer the phones

and also i read that these bonuses were NOT performance related, they were fixed

[MonkeyF0cker]

And even if it were the case, which it isn't, certainly not every derivative trader was in the red. By not awarding bonuses, there would be a mass exodus of all successful traders there (and probably unsuccessful ones too). If they are left with nothing but inexperienced and unsuccessful traders, how sane would a bailout be in retrospect?

[Shortstop]

[MonkeyF0cker]

oh the executives executed the trades? that is a new one, they also answer the phones

and also i read that these bonuses were NOT performance related, they were fixed

You obviously know nothing about trading. You think traders get to determine how much exposure they have for themselves? What their limit down is? That is all determined by someone above them. Traders don't determine a company's leverage. Jeez.

[wtf]

i worked in the pits of the cbot and bloomberg for many years

i forgot more about trading than you will ever know about it

that portion of their biz is a miserable failure and should be shut down, along with all the peasants executing the trades, the exception being offsetting any risk they have. not running a trading desk, you see lehman and that lot, they could not even do it properly and that was their core biz.

they are an INSURANCE COMPANY, have you ever worked a day in your life or just hang around casinos

[MonkeyF0cker]

CBOT, huh? I was a network engineer/programmer for Third Millenium for five years. There is absolutely no reason an insurance company should be leveraged 11:1. They failed because they had no liquidity. Please inform me, Mr. Market Maker, how the traders were responsible for this. The company decided to take on massive risk and attempted to bolster profits. How do the traders make those types of corporate decisions? You must have been a horrible trader.

[BrentCrude]

Maybe the mistake was the USA turning completely socialist and giving them bailout money to begin with.Geesh,what a surprise,a piss poor managed corrupt and bankrupt company uses money the wrong way.What's the penalty if they don't give back the legally binding contract bonuses back ?Is the government going to quit giving free tax payer welfare to AIG?Fat chance that will happen!AIG and all the state run industry socialist corporations have it made and we as tax payers deserve what we get because we voted the socialists into office who believes bailing out companies is in our best interest.The state run industry is too big to fail and receives free money and you tax payer peons are too little to survive so they suck what money you have and funnel it to their socialist state run corporations.


For the government to be mad that AIG blew more $$$$$$ down the rat hole on bonuses would be like Obama sticking his jaw out and closing his eyes telling Rush Limbaugh to give him a free best punch shot to his face and when Rush clobbered him,Obama would yell,why did you do that!

[losturmarbles]

you mean the derivative traders that put the company into bankruptcy?

who cares if they leave, i am sure another loser can fill the job

aig should be in bankruptcy right now. but thats the problem, the government didnt want to let them go bankrupt. they rather use it as a transition to nationalize the economy.

but about the bonuses, even if you and every other person doesn't think these people deserve the bonuses it doesnt matter. the people receiving the bonuses are contractually binded to receive them. so you either pay them 160 million in bonuses or you let them sue you and spend double that fighting it in court. not to mentioned you'll poison the workforce, who's going to work for a place that welches on agreed terms of employment?

so aig is damned either way. the fukin kangaroo court that is the us congress wants answers as to why these people are receiving bonuses. THIS IS WHY GOVERNMENT RUNNED ANYTHING IS BAD.
these fools had no problems voting for trillions of dollars to be spent on ridiculous projects but then have the gall to be outraged because a company wants to pay their employees bonuses that ends up being 1 dollar for every 1000 dollars that they received from the bailout. 1/1000. the outrage should be that the government handed over 160 billion dollars to them to start with. and then insists on running the company further into the ground.
and "bonus" is the new trigger word. bonuses are bad! just like the cap 500k they want to put on executives. it's government indoctrination at it's best. slowly instilling a communist mentality.
it's sickening.

[wtf]

i think congress is ONLY reacting to their constituents on this one, they dont give a fuk

[jjgold]

AIG is the greatest buy of all times It already went up a point the last week or so.

[fiveteamer]

Says they are retention bonuses, used to discourage employees from leaving for other firms.

Y'know, because there is a shortage of workers to go around.

[BobHarvey]

Maybe Obama is taking on too many things at one time. But where's his cabinet guys? They should be ahead of the story, not following it.

[JC]

MoneyFocker is 1,000% right. Most traders havevery small salaries and get a ercentage of what they earn at the end of the year. Bonus is really not a good word for it. If a trader makes a salary of $50,000 a year andis suppsosedto earn 10% of what he makes for the comapny and he clears $10 million, he is due $950,000.

Since the US Gubment decided to bail this company out, they need to retain peoplelike I just mentioned if they are going to have any hope of the company ever makingany money again. Otherwise they may as well just wind the whole thing up now.

[JC]

i worked in the pits of the cbot and bloomberg for many years

i forgot more about trading than you will ever know about it

What did you trade?

[durito]

i worked in the pits of the cbot and bloomberg for many years

i forgot more about trading than you will ever know about it

Do some research into who you are talking to. Then take your foot out of your mouth if it isn't permanently lodged there.

[wtf]

Do some research into who you are talking to. Then take your foot out of your mouth if it isn't permanently lodged there.

talking to some guy who hangs around casinos all day

this is AN INSURANCE COMPANY, why they have a trading room? what is wrong with you guys

[MonkeyF0cker]

Is that supposed to be an insult, wtf?

[MonkeyF0cker]

this is AN INSURANCE COMPANY, why they have a trading room? what is wrong with you guys

A better question is: Why are you in this thread if you don't know the answer? Three reasons: the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, corporate greed, and excessive risk.

[losturmarbles]

A better question is why are you in this thread if you don't know the answer. Three reasons: the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, corporate greed, and excessive risk.

what is corporate greed?

[wtf]

they placed their bets

they lost

they all deserve to lose their jobs

you can spin it all you want

[MonkeyF0cker]

My definition of corporate greed?

Attempting to inflate your bottom line at all costs.

[MonkeyF0cker]

they placed their bets

they lost

they all deserve to lose their jobs

you can spin it all you want

Uhh. You're a bit late to that discussion. That conversation ended after a $700 billion bailout was enacted.

[losturmarbles]

My definition of corporate greed?

Attempting to inflate your bottom line at all costs.

inflate your bottom line? do you mean show profit?

and what is "at all costs"? that's pretty vague. where's the line at? i mean what's acceptable and what's unacceptable? and who decides this?

[MonkeyF0cker]

Yes, attempting to increase profit by any means necessary to drive up share prices, appease investors, and garner new investors. Sorry, I don't have a benchmark. It's a judgment call.

[Igetp2s]

The hypocrisy in Washington is unbelievable. Where was all the outrage a few weeks ago when our politicians wasted 1000X the taxpayer money that AIG is with these bonuses? Complete morons. Oh and by the way, Congress got raises for their brilliant performance as well. Maybe that should be taxed 100% as well.