Wall Street’s Market ‘Wizards’ – Laughing all the way to the bank with the taxpayer’s money

“The American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses by Sunday to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year.”

You have to feel sorry for those poor executives over at AIG eh?

Yeah, right.

And this is in addition to the “$121 million in previously scheduled bonuses for the company’s senior executives and 6,400 employees across the sprawling corporation.”

“In a letter to Mr. Geithner, Edward M. Liddy, the government-appointed chairman of A.I.G., said at least some bonuses were needed to keep the most skilled executives.”

What “…skilled executives?”

Skilled at what exactly? Skilled at blowing a $62 billion hole in the company?

“Of those people collecting more than $1 million, eleven have already left the company, Mr. Cuomo’s office said.”

Those eleven “skilled executives” kept their million dollar bonuses but I guess the company could’t keep them from leaving eh?

According to my Webster’s New World Dictionary a bonus is: “anything given in addition to the customary or required amount” and I would suggest that these “skilled executives” would only deserve a bonus if their work performance was “anything given in addition to the customary or required amount” and in this case, I honestly believe that 99% of the planet would suggest that they deserve no bonuses whatsoever.

In fact, being responsible for bringing the largest insurance company to the “brink of collapse” I would suggest that:

1. Just for one day, these ‘Market Wizards’ should be featured (with names, photos, biographies and total earnings detailed) on the front page of every newspaper and on every major TV news network so that the US taxpayer can see where his/her money is going…
2. They should all be charged with criminal negligence and any other white collar crime we can come up with … In fact, let’s create a special, new criminal category just for them!
3. They should have all of their personal assets frozen and liquidated in order to help compensate the taxpayer for this historic disaster and then ‘Maddoffed!’
4. Maddoffed! Meaning? Send the bastards away to a real prison for the next 150 years!

Or, for an even better suggestion we could go with Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) idea: “… I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they’d follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say: ‘I’m sorry,’ and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide.” (On 17th March 2009; “Grassley retreated from those comments.)

AIG, said Rep. Paul Hodes (D., N.H.), stood for “arrogance, incompetence and greed.”

Nobody seems to want to write about the 8,000 or so not-for-profit credit unions in the USA that are increasing their loans and continue to serve over 80 million Americans without a single insolvency…

“Pressure on the 370-person Financial Products unit, based primarily in Connecticut and London, grew even more intense yesterday when New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo threatened to issue subpoenas if the company failed to provide details about recipients of the retention payments.”

And “more than half the taxpayer bailout money it (AIG) has received has been paid to investment firm Goldman Sachs and several European banks.” How does that work?

Over at Citigroup, “Citigroup Inc awarded Chief Executive Vikram Pandit $10.82 million of compensation in 2008, a year when the government propped up the bank with $45 billion of capital.”

On the other side of the pond, there’s our fallen star Sir Fred Goodwin of the Royal Bank of Scotland: “I think it is quite outrageous that a man who led a bank into the largest banking failure ever, a bank that depends on public support, should see a departing executive drawing a weekly pension of £13,000,” said Lord Myners.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the British currency, Fred’s pension of £13,000 per week is equivalent to US$18,159 per week….

What a business eh? Drive your company into the ground and still earn (?) millions in bonuses and collect a lifelong pension (at age 50) of US$72,636 per month… It’s a tough life!

Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.