Gordon Gecko Would Be Proud of AIG
Anyone who's watching, read or listened to the news in the past 24 or so hours has probably already gotten an earful about what American International Group (AIG) has been up to.
In case you've managed to miss it, they've been paying out millions of dollars in bonuses to their "top employees". Those same employees who've put the company in the record books as the biggest financial loser ever and have left the U.S. Government holding most of the ownership of the company. Oh, and the money for those bonuses? That's coming out of the tax dollars that went into the bailout of AIG.
Here's a bit from Marketwatch that lays it out pretty plainly:
AIG has been under government care and taxpayer ownership since September, but somehow during this time, managers and government officials have either ignored or signed off more than $450 million in bonuses. It was reported Monday that $170 million of that was to be paid to the financial products unit, which employs 370 and was responsible for $40.5 billion in losses last year.
Of course, now there's all sorts of frothing and lamenting from the government about how awful this is (regardless of whether it occurred to them when handing over that money that this would happen). Obama has called for "any legal means possible" to stop the payout of those bonuses. Some Republican congresscritters have gone a little further and called for sepuku of those involved.
And the public, riled up by the messy reality of this all is calling for blood in their own way.
We are right to be angry. The sheer audacity that there are contracts in place that reward epic failure to the tune of millions of dollars is appalling. But it's nothing new. These contracts that are requiring this money to be paid were in place long before the economy took a nose-dive. It's just that the majority of people never cared to notice before.
Now that it's "our" money, though, things are different.
As angry as we are, we still must remain careful. There is a great temptation to amend the President's call for "any legal means possible" and replace it with "any means necessary" to stop the bonus pay outs. Stepping over that line would only make matters worse in the long run.
One of the last things we want is the Federal Government able to wave its collective hand and overturn private contracts. Any precedent set now for doing so will without a doubt come back and bite us three times over in the future. It would be a step backwards--a leap fueled by fear and anger, much like the numerous calls to action that caused so many problems over the past decade.
Instead we should focus more on what NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has called for: Show us who the money is going to.
This transparency is in line with what the bailout called for from the beginning. It begins to pull back the veil of secrecy and corruption that has long encased the culture of corporate greed and governmental apathy that has consistently dug us deeper and deeper into a split society of billionaires and everyone else.
Back in the heady days of the 80s, the film Wall Street gave us Gordon Gecko, greed personified. He preached that "Greed is good" and would solve all of America's problems.
I think we all know now that good old Gordon was wrong.
The only thing that will save us now--and most certainly the only thing that will even vaguely redeem AIG in the eyes of the public--is for those who are supposed to be receiving this money to stand up and publicly, willingly and honestly refuse to take money they clearly do no deserve.
We the people should not only demand this from the AIG executives, but also from the higher-ups in every business and level of government. Take it upon yourselves, we should say, to do the right thing and help more sensibly distribute the wealth. Do it not because the law forces you to, but because it is the right thing to do in the situation... because things are bad now.
When things get better, maybe good habits learned now will stick. I wouldn't hold my breath for that... but I would hope.
