You may remember that AIG -- which is afloat only thanks to a bailout by you, the taxpayer, to the tune of $152 billion and counting--made a whole lot of public relations when its top seven executives agreed not to take bonuses this year. Well, on the eve of Thanksgiving, obviously knowing the markets would be closed on the holiday and obviously knowing that just before the holiday few people would pay attention, AIG actually notified regulators that, well, yes, bonuses would be given out, as Bloomberg News and The Financial Times reports today: American International Group Inc., the insurer that said yesterday it scrapped bonuses for top executives after a U.S. bailout, will still pay 130 managers "cash awards" to stay with the firm, including $3 million to retirement services chief Jay Wintrob. Wintrob, 51, will get the "retention" payment in two installments, the first in April 2009 and the rest a year later, New York-based AIG said today in a regulatory filing. The firm previously disclosed the program in a Sept. 26 filing and said today that Wintrob and Chief Financial Officer David Herzog elected to get the payments four months later than planned. "The expectation from the public and Congress was that they weren't getting bonuses, not that they'd be pushed off by several months," said David Schmidt, a consultant at executive pay firm James F. Reda & Associates. "That clearly violates the spirit of AIG saying they'll forgo their bonuses."[emphasis added] However, the UBS news comes just a day after it emerged AIG, which has received more than $150bn in bail-out financing from the US government, would still pay 130 managers "cash awards" to stay with the firm. AIG disclosed the bonuses in a regulatory filing on the evening before Thanksgiving, a day when US markets are closed. The insurer had previously said its seven top executives would forgo their bonuses for 2008. They just can't help themselves, can they? Call it "retention pay" or "cash bonuses" or some other euphemism -- but the fact is that your tax dollars are going to reward people who are lucky to even have jobs. There should have been a housecleaning that swept the entire top level of managers out on their asses for playing a role in the financial crisis that is hurting millions of people. I have not seen this reported in other mainline traditional media. But, this is a scam.
I'm so tired of this non-sense about bonuses. They shouldn't even be called bonuses. If you're so pissed about it, you should have addressed this with your government before they gave money to AIG. If a guy in a specific group generates a profit for that specific group, AND he has a contract with the company that compensates him specifically for his performance, then it's just what he's owed. If the other group lost billions but this guy made a billion, then he is owed the money they said they would pay him. Deferred compensation, whether it's a bonus or whatever, is owed by AIG to talented managers and employees. It should be considered debt to their employees that they have an obligation to pay. A lot of large corporations have various groups. Some are profitable, some aren't. Sometimes the profitable groups subsidize and allow for the unprofitable ones to hang around until better times.
Your dumb attitude about these thieves explains why the US is in such a mess! You're saying, let 'em rob us for whatever they can get away with. According to the above post, $3 million went to retirement services chief Jay Wintrob. Tell me, what the FUCK does a "retirement chief" DO??? Probably plan his OWN retirement 8 hrs/day!
lolatency is probably "talking his trade", iow, he wants to make sure that he "gets his". It's thinking like this moron which is bankrupting the country. But fools like lolatency don't care, they just want to make sure that their "belly is full". Tell us again how a company that lost billions and required government intervention to even survive should be paying their Corporate Officers million dollars in unearned bonuses lolatency ... I keep saying your name so no one will forget who the biggest tool on the board is.
America has become the land of pure fucking greed ... apparently you either have to get on board the money train or be left behind in middle class poverty. :eek:
if that is his bonus then what is his salary...he probably could not make it on just his salary a mere 5 or 6 hundred thou...
We did address it with our government before they gave the money to AIG. There was a huge public outcry and protests against the $700 million bail-out. Congress pretended to listen by not passing it the first time. Then, when the market tanked, congress added quite a bit more pork to the bill to persuade a few more congressman to vote for it. In the future, all of these bailouts will be looked upon as the biggest financial mistake in history.
It's not welfare, it's not socialism, it's just a huge money grab. The same as has been done throughtout history.