I cannot help but write and comment about the AIG Bonus Debacle. AIG has been bailed out will billions of taxpayer funds. Then these jokers turn around and award themselves multi-million dollar bonuses. This has resulted in a public outcry. Why should a company that almost went bankrupt and required government bailout deserve any bonuses.Whose fault was this in the first place? Obviously something was going wrong at insurer AIG. The financial market as well has been dismal over the past year. But let’s take those facts for granted. When the government decided to step in and bail out the company, should they have ensured the bailout money come with some restrictions to prevent nonsense like big bonuses.
Where does the buck stop with the responsibility? Is the treasury secretary to blame? How about President Obama? Somebody is sure to blame here. Congress is smartly reacting by creating a new law to heavily tax these bonuses. In other words, the taxpayer is going to recoup the money paid out by these4 bonuses.
The American people are not placated. AIG is reporting that they are worried about their employees’ safety. There have been death threats on the employees. Luckily AIG has not released the names of the specific employees who received the bonuses. They do not want to put a target on the heads of these employees.
This could have been prevented by not issuing the bonuses in the first place. Even if there were some contracts in place, the bonus should not have been paid. Let any employees who think that they deserve a bonus sue the company for the bonus. I bet a judge will agree that helping drive a company into bankruptcy is not reason for a bonus.
