AIG gets taxpayer bailout...BONUS?

[RICHARD]

OctoKids or AIG AHs that live way over their means?

[Catty1]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/0...cial_aig_obama

Obama expresses outrage over AIG bonus payments

53 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama expressed outrage on Monday over hefty bonus payments awarded to employees of insurer AIG and said he directed his treasury secretary to take all legal measures to block them.

Insurance giant AIG received some $173 billion in government bailout money and is now paying $165 million in employee bonuses.

"This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed," Obama said of AIG.

"Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay," he said in remarks at the White House. "How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"

Obama said he had asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to use the leverage the government had to pursue "every legal avenue" to push back against the bonus payments.

"I know he's working to resolve this matter with the new CEO, Edward Liddy, who came on board after the contracts that led to these bonuses were agreed to last year," Obama said.

The president said the bonus situation underscored the need for overall financial regulator reform and said the government needed "some form of resolution mechanism in dealing with troubled financial institutions, so we have greater authority to protect the American taxpayer and our financial system in cases such as this. We will work with Congress to that end."

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and David Alexander, editing by Jackie Frank)

[momoffuzzyfaces]

I personally think AIG is trying to pull a fast one. The insurance co I used to work for gave us bonuses too, but only at then end of the year and based on the profits. If we didn't have any profits that year, no one got a bonus.

AIG supposidly has contracts to pay these big bonuses or they may be sued. Give me a break!!! If they go bankrupt, they wouldn't have the money for the bonuses!!! What would they do then?

They say AIG is too big to fail. Well, if they keep cutting employee saleries by 30% but still giving the hot shots, who made the mess in the first place, big bonuses sooner or later, there will only be a company of worthless hot shots and no workers. So, then the co will fail any way. This is why monopolies are discouraged!!!

I'm glad we have a president who is outraged by this!!! If they can't stop the money going to AIG, I'd be sure and let AIG know, that's the end of it. When it's gone, they are on their own to sink or swim.