Oh, it's a darn rotten shame that AIG is using taxpayer money to pay bonuses to the very people who have flushed these same taxpayers down the crapper. Really, it's just awful - terrible. Oh, my. But - unfortunately, these executives have contracts, you see! So, even though it makes us all mad as heck (grrr!), I'm afraid we'll just have to let them have their bonuses. We can't break their contracts, now, can we? You understand, now, don't you? Why, they might sue us if we don't let them have their bonuses! We can't take the risk of making these executives mad, now, can we? After all, we are a country of laws!
Glenn Greenwald says:
Larry Summers, Sunday, on AIG’s payment of executive bonuses:
We are a country of law. There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts. Every legal step possible to limit those bonuses is being taken by Secretary Geithner and by the Federal Reserve system.
Associated Press, February 18, 2009:
The United Auto Workers’ deal with Detroit’s three automakers limits overtime, changes work rules, cuts lump-sum cash bonuses and gets rid of cost-of-living pay raises to help reduce the companies’ labor costs, people briefed on the agreement said today.
The UAW announced Tuesday that it reached the tentative agreement with General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. over contract concessions, as GM and Chrysler sent plans to the Treasury Department asking for a total of $39 billion in government financing to help them survive.
Concessions with the union are a condition of the $17.4 billion in government loans that the automakers have received so far.
Apparently, the supreme sanctity of employment contracts applies only to some types of employees but not others.
Hmmm.
Oh Larry Summers - I'm so glad to have a people's champion like you in charge of the bailouts. Good thing you're on our side! Your fierce tsk-tsk-ing and ferocious finger-wagging must have AIG just shaking in their boots.
With laughter.
Oh yes - these valuable, brilliant executives must be paid these grotesquely huge bonuses - otherwise, we'll lose them!
Heaven forbid. Who wouldn't do whatever it takes to attract and retain such stellar performers? The 'best and brightest'? Yeah - like a California wildfire. Best at what? Oh, right - best at stealing money.
I really can't find the words to say how much I despise these people.
4 comments:
It is disgusting, isn't it?
Proving once again that the "law" (such a quaint term!) is very different depend on what spot you occupy on the food chain.
Another example of that can be found in any American prison, but that is another story indeed.
Maybe not.
I am never surprised when I discover inequalities in the capitalist system.
Fran - you're right; it is the exact same story.
CK - surprised? Not a bit. Mad as hell? You bet. If I stop getting mad, the next step is apathy, and I'm not ready for that quite yet.
You mentioned "these valuable, brilliant executives must be paid these grotesquely huge bonuses". I found another one of them in the news... Mr. Rahm Emanuel. What a surprise to find that he is one of the obscene profit-makers. Shame, shame.
Rahm As Capitalist Pig
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