AIG Executive Resignation – A Glorious FU to the Government
Much has been said over the last week over the bonuses promised to some AIG employees. Apparently Congress and the American people prefer to squabble and whine over the $165 million payout while ignoring the trillions being wasted by our government in bailouts, budgets and stimuli. Maybe it’s just easier to understand a million than a trillion. Either way our government has lost its mind.
As you may know Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, resigned and sent a letter to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G. It really shows what happens when a mod rule can do when the facts aren’t properly investigated. Where the hell is the media? Why aren’t they digging into what it really means to pay, or not pay, these bonuses.
After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.
I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.
See our government, the taxpayers, came in to “rescue” AIG. It was a grand gesture. Those that screwed things up bailed. The government and the management that stayed asked people to stay and help dismantle the company. To get it functioning again. Promises were made. People were asked to give up a lot for little in return. People like Mr. DeSantis were who we the taxpayers were counting on to pump life back into AIG.
But typical government intervention has pretty much doomed this company to utter failure and the loss of BILLIONS in taxpayer money. People like DeSantis are who we needed to stay and help. Now they will leave with a chip on their shoulders and be damned if they ever help again. I can’t blame them. Our government continues to fail at every turn. It is utterly incompetent. We have people that have ZERO business and economic sense from the President to the leaders in Congress trying to fix this mess. Like they have any idea? The only hope we have is Ben Bernanke. Any other time we’d be considering him a failure as well I think. But he is the only voice of reason and competency at this time.
DeSantis to Liddy:
But you also are aware that most of the employees of your financial products unit had nothing to do with the large losses. And I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us. I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn’t defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.
Liddy is in a bad spot. He has chosen to be Barney Frank and Chris Dodd’s lap dog. The political winds that were shifted by the Congress and sailed on by the media clowns made it tough for him to stand up for what he believed. He should have.
More from DeSantis:
As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.
Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.
He makes a great point. One in which I wish everyday people would truly understand before they feign outrage over something they know nothing about except for what Jon Stewart tells them on the Comedy Channel.
This is what the real world looks like. Real people affected because our government is incompetent. Do you really want it to run health care in this manner? If people like DeSantis walks away because of government intervention and the fed has to run the banks, anybody think that is a good idea?
From economist Larry Kudlow:
This whole AIG fiasco — where the entire political class is suddenly screaming over bonuses paid to derivative traders in AIG’s financial-products division — is just a complete farce. What it really shows is how the government has completely bungled the AIG takeover. Blame the Bush administration and the Obama administration. It also shows, once again, why the government shouldn’t run anything, because it cannot run anything.
Our government is incompetent. I hope one day the American people will care about that.
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