Welcome back! I hope you all enjoyed spring brake. While you were away, we learned that AIG executives received $165 million in bonuses which the company paid using TARP (bailout) money. We are now learning that the new treasury secretary, Tim Geithner had knowledge of the transaction. We probably can agree on the fact that these bonuses should not have been paid using bailout, or tax payers money. Whether the executives earned those bonuses or not is another story. However, these bonuses were paid, what can we do now to help tax payers recover the money without braking any constitutional rights or contractual obligations, and without discouraging hard working executives who should be paid bonuses for their extraordinary contribution to company profits.
My first thought, tax bonuses paid using bailout money at a higher rate of 100%! Bonuses should not be paid using bailout money! They should be paid using company profits if and when profits exist. The funds given to AIG were not intended to pay bonuses but to stabilize the company financially. If the $165 million were not needed for financial stabilization, they should be given back to the tax payers. If the financial institutions don’t utilize bailout funds to improve lending conditions and stabilize the companies financially, then the financial crisis is far from over and the bailout plan will not work.
Unless we hold government officials accountable for their actions, we are bound to see corruption as the implementation of the $800 billion recovery plans begins. Should Tim Geithner resign from failing to do his job? Is he accountable? What can we do as tax paying citizens to make sure the government don’t misuse tax payers money in the future? What are your thoughts?
As I write this post, the bonuses paid to Merrill executives are being discussed in Washington, DC. What are your thoughts on those? What can we do differently this time?
I think that not only Tim but all of the AIG executives need to be held accountable. Papers, numbers and figures get shuffled around AIG all the time I’m sure of it. If a company if having financial difficulties you can’t tell me that there isn’t more than one person that gets updated on the financial status of the company. Did these bonus just magically appear on all of the ledgers and financial statements? I think that just one person should not be accountable, but everyone involved with the corruption. On that note, the American people need follow the $800 billion recovery package closely. Watch where their money is going in their states. Most states already have a recovery website set. Not saying you have to check in everyday but once in while and if you see something you don’t understand or don’t like look into it further. Americans need to be slightly more involved than we have in past I included.
Kelly’s right I think that all the AIG executives need to be held accountable, not just Tim. In a big Company like that if they don’t have money most of the time alot of people have heard about it and it is being talked about. Another thing I dont feel as though us tax paper’s should be giving people bailout’s and them to use it to give bonuses to their employee’s. They should use the bailout for a better affect for their company and try to get it into better standing.
i agree. The AIG bonuses could be used for many other important things for the companys. They should just point out Tim for this whole mess, they should pay attention to everyone else that is involved. People need to pay alot more attention to what there doing with there money and where its going…because if we dont then things might get out of control with the $800 recovery. No need for anymore stress!
“The buck stops here.”, Mr. President! We are getting exactly what the American people voted for, a man with no executive experience. It was widely reported not one congressman read this legislation completely before they voted on it, and then the President signs it into law without reading it completely. How long would we have a job if we were to act with such irresponsibility and reckless abandon?
Senetor Chris Dodd has been recently caught in a lie, finally succumbing to pressure and throwing Tim Geithner under the bus by saying he was pressured into adding to the bill, approving the bonuses. And no one knew this? Yeah, right.
The Government should bear the brunt of the criticism in this blame game.
AIG was doing just fine until government stuck its nose into private industry and pressured them into sub-prime loans. Government should stay in the oversight business and stop regulating. What do a bunch of Ivy League lawyers know about economics? Let capitalism work itself out.
I think that if the approval for the bonus disbursements were not written into the bill then they should not have been doled out. But because of some closed door politics, AIG was not only held by contractual obligations but was now obligated by law to give the bonuses.
By assuming the executives receiving a bonus are already multi-millionaires, if I were them, I would make it public knowledge that I donated the entire bonus rather than give it back to have it only wasted in another way.
This is almost laughable. Did these fuckers really think that they were going to use bailout funding for bonuses and not create an uproar? I mean c’mon! Who is making the executive decisions for AIG?? I would be embarrassed as a wealthy executive to basically steal the money from the taxpayers’s pockets. I knew that the economic spending plan was a bad idea from the start. We are fool and have been taken by the government. I’m kind of surprised that Bush never thought of something like this. Ahh, he wasn’t clever enough I guess. I think I like that about Bush. He can’t screw us over too bad, he’s not smart enough. Anybody who had knowledge of this crime should go to jail as an acomplice in the crime. And this is a crime. They are using lended money which is understood to be used to better the stability of the institutions, and pocketing it for personal use. The one thing that keep coming back to kill me is that these STUPID people actually thought that there was going to be no dispute. Or maybe they just don’t really care. Wow… what’s next???
I can’t believe the nerve of those executives who took the money ment for our economic “stimulation” to support their own luxurious expenditures (and probably that of their needy wives and girlfriends as well). I don’t know if they ever gave any thought to what they were doing because it completely baffles me as to how they could have ever even hoped launder off such a large chunk of money without it going unnoticed. I’m sure undoubtedly that most of that money has already been spent on a new fleet of private jets. I believe the only way they’ll ever see any of that moeny again is if the executives decide to finally take theirs heads out of their asses and actually do something “good” for once. Haha but come on, that’s not the way it works, is it? While Tim Geithner should be accountable, he wasn’t the only one behind it so therefore shouldnt be the only one held responsible for this ignominy. They should all be held responsible, and therefore punished accordingly to serve as a warning to those who plan on doing this in the future.
I don’t think this problem is beyond fixing, and I was glad to see that even some of the executives who recieved the rediculous bonuses agreed that it was wrong to use the bailout money. I think other coorperations and the U.S. government will learn from these recient events, making it easier to avoid similar mistakes in the future. It’s true, Tim Geithner should be held partly accountable for having knowlege or the circumstances and failing to act, but not to the point of resignation. The higher-ups in the AIG coorporation are equally, if not mostly, responsible for approving such outragious bonuses in the first place.
One word, “VOTE”.
As taxpayers, we are essentially powerless independently (although I question the validity of the voting process as a whole and fear that due to the depth of corruption, it is a mere tradition kept in place to appease the masses). Our numbers must be represented by a new, foreward thinking party. We need influential people that will SERVE with integrity and a sincere concern for the masses they represent. One that will hold those abusing their positions to standards mainstream individuals must adhere to – an everyday Joe not only would’ve been fired but tried and convicted for such acts, the blatant disregard in which they conduct themselves leaves me speechless.
Its hard to put an opinion on something once again i dont fully understand but here goes anyway. Government officials should be punished for not doing their jobs. Being fired might not be the solution but punishment in another form whether it be fines or some form of payment for what he has done. Tim should not resign and he is probably only half accountable. He doesn’t make every decision by himself. What the tax payers can do is make it known that they are concerned on how the money is being spent. If no one is speaking up it will continue.
As far as making sure that the government doesn’t misuse tax payers money in the future, there’s no solution. The government has taken advantage of tax payers before this whole AIG fiasco and will continue to in later years I’m sure. Especially here in TAXachusetts, we’re all well aware of the crazy schemes that can occur to get us to shell out more money. If the government messes up and runs into a financial crisis, they just look to the hard-working, honest tax payers to pick up the pieces.
I don’t think Tim Geithner should have been ok’d in the first bit by the congressional board because he didn’t pay his taxes, which is a big no no. Anyone else that would have done what Geithner did would have been put in jail. This is another example of how Obama is not ready to be president. He can’t even pick members for his own cabinet without screwing up. I thought Obama wasn’t going to be a Washington insider as usual, and was going to be bipartisan to. He said everything that he needed to say to get elected, but now that he is elected he’s taken that mask off, to show what he is really like.
I thought this was interesting and made me upset that the money that AIG got from us, the tax payers, didn’t all go to that company, Some of AIG money went to banks in Europe, so why are we giving money to AIG if they are just going to give it to European banks, if the European banks aren’t doing well then Europe should give their own banks money not the American tax payers.
A way that every tax payer in America can get back at the politicians that voted for these bonuses, and got this economy, and country in the turmoil it is now will be in the voting box in 2010, if enough politicians are kicked out of office who voted for these stimulus packages, that will be a strong message that the people out here are sick and tired of the same Washington crap that goes on every single day. This will say that politicians need to be more accountable for what they vote for, and they should read the legislation that they are voting for, not just vote on legislation that hasn’t been discussed or debated as the last stimulus bill wasn’t. Hopefully Americans will not forget about this issue in 2010 and vote these politicians that are corrupt, and voted for this outrageous stimulus bill out of office so we can finally have a government that is one that represents us.
You know it’s a shame that AIG is going through this dilemma , they were doing just fine getting these huge loans. You know what, with all this stress we come to find out that Bernard Madoff Ponzi is doing life in prison. Why not take his Money and do something with it. Maybe with his money we can recover. I can’t really say much because if I was in that position of receiving all that cash, and if all of it came from bonuses, you are right I would take it all with no questions asked. As for Tim Geithner I just heard that he got hit with some much fines because he did not do his taxes right. (If I am referring to the right person)
It is like the bigger some companies get, the more they forget about the real reason they were created. Instead, they focus on making themselves rich. AIG is failing, and they give out large bonuses or “retention payments” in government bailout money?!? It makes no sense!!! They should worry about keeping their company alive and not “keeping employees”. Maybe it was in the contract, but when the company loses that much money and needs help, then that part of the contract should be voided…PERIOD!
Ok well lets go a little more deeper into what is a bonus.
Bonus= a sum of money granted or given to an employee, a returned in addition to regular pay, usually in appreciation for work done, length of service, accumulated favors.
Well ok. So in other words the bonuses were granted to those individuals from the get go no matter what happened. However, did the american tax payer money had anything to do with that. NO!!!!!!!!
When these individuals sign a contract to work for AIG they sign a contract with an agreed bonuses from a different administration.
The tax payer money has nothing to do with those bonuses.
AIG had no write to use the bailout money as money to give out for bonuses are they retarded. The Goverment was going to figure out this scam sooner or later. I have no words for what happened but these are missing a part of their brain.
Bonuses should not be paid using bailout money and that is it. Bonusus should only be given when the company makes profits and in this situation there are no profits therefore the bonusus should not be given. The money that was given to AIG was meant to stabilize the company financially, taken from the tax payers dollars. With AIG not using the money correctly to help stabalize there comany then the bail out will not work and the economy will continue to crumble.
I do beleive Time Geithner should be held accountable and should resign from failing to do his job correctly. Right now our economy is in such a mess that we cannot afford to keep making mistakes like this. Tim has lost confidence in americans and ever since he has been in office the department of treasury has been a mess and tax payers dollars have been wasted. I think its time for Obama to nominate a new secretary of treasury so we can acually move forward because we do not have time for any more mistakes and waste.
I think that AIG AND TIm Geithner need to be held responsible. First of all Tim Geithner new about AIG using the money for company bonuses. This country is in an economic crisis and I feel that all we do is keep making the rich richer and the poor poorer. We are the richest and most powerful country in the world and we have people starving and living on the streets. Does that seem right? At the same time we have people that have multiple homes around the country/world and there taking our tax money and getting a big fat bonus, deserved or not deserved this should of never happened. Tim Geithner should be forced to resign, obviously he does not have the peoples best interest in mind.
I feel that AIG and all these companies that received bailout money need to return the money and reinvest this money into the economy. The executives don’t deserve to take the governments money that is meant to help our economy and benefit the country as a whole. Tim needs to re evaluate his plan on how to help stimulate our economy. I believe Tim should be replaced by someone who is more honest and actually takes an interest in the idea of making our economy come back to its normal state. Tax payers should not pay for these big companies and their own mess-ups making it harder on the working class who is the backbone of our economy.
my thoughts are simple that we shouldnt be using what they take out for taxes to be paying for important peoples jobs such as the police men and firemen. why would we want to lose our money every week to having that money go to them instead it come to us. we worked hard on that money so dont u think we should get it with our weekly pay checks.
i think that all the money should of been given back to the people and not in some guys fat wallet, also we could of used that money to help bail out some of the ecomoy debt and help out all the struggling people…
When i heard that AIG gave their bailout money for raises..i was furious.. How could they do that knowing we are all suffering from and economic crisis. It is mind boggling that a company would do this. The money needed to be returned right away and an apology needed to be made. I still can’t believe that this happened.
This really pissed me off to hear. But if Tim knew of this, and let it happen, he should be imprisoned. So should some of the executives for accepting them. Sure we would all like to be those people who received some of that money but seriously… your family your friends, are paying for these bonuses with the taxes. I think a lot of companies like AIG are responsible for the economy. Therefor why should many of them receive money? The company like you said, should be stable before ANY money goes out aside from regular hourly or yearly wage. Perfect example of why this country is so pathetic now. Greed, stupidity. If there weren’t regulations to protect this money AND people to watch over it, then the government once again didn’t do their job. All the money should be given back and if not, fined back from those who took it. Until we as a nation get out of this debt, NOBODY can be taking kickbacks. nobody sitting on the side getting free tax money. I sometimes think it will never change and I’m thinking of moving to England where I have dual citizenship. But who knows they could be just as idiotic, only one way to find out! The money should’ve given back if it wasn’t needed.
In many cases the executive bonuses are part of their expected salary, although they are tied to company profit many of the company executives recieve very little base compensation. obviousley the exectuvies should not have been paidp such a high amount considering the extreme financial situations in which their company was in.
I think that its sick that are tax dollars were used to pay these already rich executives, and the government actually let this happen. could have been better used, but it seems like thats the new trend now is to missuse money, and thats why we are in the mess were in. I think that everyone who took part in this should be brought up on charges because its basically stealing. To think our government played us like that when were in an econmic crisis is sick. There isnt much that can even be done about this because there the government and they control whats going on. For lack of a better word i would say we are screwed.
I think that if a corporation has been bailed out by the government, they shouldn’t be rewarding employees. Granted, the company could have been contractually obligated to give their employees bonuses before the downfall. With that said, the government should have stipulated that if given the bailout, than no bonuses allowed. I think that the government should now tax a lot for these bonuses
The fact that AIG bonuses were paid using bailout money is an obvious example of money being appropriated where it shouldn’t be. The “bailout money’s” purpose is to “right the ship.” Of course this would lead to an uproar in response. I’m not the least bit surprised that this took place. Clearly something seems “fishy” about the whole scenario and it would be nice if the term ” consequences ” could be applied here. Unfortunately, I don’t see anyone in the foreseeable future being punished for this ridiculousness.