Echoing Jon Green (head of our Connecticut WFP), I’m not angry at AIG. I’m somewhere between furious and white-knuckled outrage. I’m livid. I bet you are too.
Unless you’ve been living under a particularly calming rock, you’ve heard that AIG, perhaps the company most responsible for bringing our economy to its knees, gave out $165 million in executive bonuses, and plans to give out hundreds of millions more. Of our money!
What we really need is to introduce the concept of disgorgement into public discourse. That’s the “repayment of ill-gotten gains imposed by the courts on illegal or unethical actions“. In other words, the fat bonuses that CEO’s and executives on Wall Street have been getting for the past few years have turned out to be based on worthless paper and mismanagement. While Joe Q. Public is going to get stuck with most of the bill, federal and state governments should be doing all they can to go after those ill-gotten gains.
There are other opinions of course. Republican Senator Charles Grassley said that AIG execs should apologize, resign, and something else we won’t repeat. Legendary investor Jim Rogers said that we should let them go bankrupt. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is on record calling for this to be the very last bonus we give them.
What do you think? We’re running a poll of our supporters and soliciting comments for our trip this Saturday to Wilton, CT. That’s right: the WFP is inviting you to our road trip to the headquarters of AIG’s Financial Products unit (and the homes of senior executives living nearby) in Wilton, CT. We’re bringing YOUR suggestions for what to do about this massive transfer of wealth to financial failures.
Tell us what you think should be done with AIG.
Breaking News: Join us in Wilton, CT – Bus leaving from Brooklyn this Saturday @ 9:30 am. We’re going to pay a visit to the headquarters of AIG’s Financial Planning unit, and to the nearby homes of top AIG executives.
Discussion
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