Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner is GRILLED by congress (Video)

Again, when is this guy going to bounce from the Obama Administration....



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Obama Administration, GET RID OF TIM GEITHNER (Video)

He needs to go. Period. How long is Barack Obama going to keep Wall Street's best friend around? What he did to protect AIG is criminal. He has to go. Read it all here.

From the Ed Show:



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When is Geither going to be asked for his resignation?

I don't know what more can be said about the problematic Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The very same individual who has protected Wall Street, the Big Banks and AIG. It is these decisions that have the American Public currently red hot about tax payer money being used to save these industries, which put us in the bind we are in. And the big banks? The very ones who used our money at 1% interest, invested it, made a bundle, paid the government back and still are not lending to move this economy.

Again, when are we going to see some asses flying from posts under the Obama Administration. This is a valid question, because this is all about changing Washington and not remaining the same, right?

An arm of the Federal Reserve, then led by now-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, told bailed-out insurance giant AIG to withhold key details from the public about overpayments that put billions of extra tax dollars in the coffers of major Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs.

The sordid tale unfolds in a series of e-mails between the company and the New York Fed obtained by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and first publicly disclosed by Bloomberg News.

The matter is the subject of an "ongoing review" by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), communications director Kristine Belisle said in an e-mail to the Huffington Post. SIGTARP is headed by Neil M. Barofsky, a former federal prosecutor.

Taxpayers have committed about $182 billion to AIG. The under-regulated firm developed and sold complicated derivatives products without having adequate capital in place if those bets went bad, which they eventually did. The firm nearly single-handedly wrecked the entire financial system.

After the firm was given a taxpayer-funded backstop, one of its most controversial acts was to repay banks at 100 cents on the dollar for what was by that point nearly worthless insurance the banks had bought from AIG, known as credit-default swaps.

A brutal report issued in November by a government watchdog disclosed that AIG had actually been trying to negotiate better terms with the banks until - guess what? -- the New York Fed stepped in. The report held Geithner personally responsible, and led to renewed questions about his fitness for the job. read more here...

Geithner, for me was too close for comfort with his direct involvement of AIG and Wall Street. This disclosure to the public does not wear well on him nor the Obama Administration. Again, when is this man's resignation going to be on the President's desk?

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AIG: Shamed or Scared for being called out

Scared for having their names out there, for everyone to read. Fear more than shame is the reason these AIG folks are giving their bonus money back.

I have to hat tip, NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for being all over AIG, like white on rice to give those bonuses back. AIG did not know what hit them when Cuomo went after them, as he is pursuing Citigroup. But don't think that folks, everyday joes and josettas, out there protesting in front of these bonus recipients homes did not intimidate them, it did. Heck it would worry me.

A busload of activists representing working- and middle-class families paid visits Saturday to the lavish homes of American International Group executives to protest the tens of millions of dollars in bonuses awarded by the struggling insurance company after it received a massive federal bailout.

So far 15 of the 20 largest bonuses have been returned, but of course when money is involved EVERYONE is not going to be on the shame train.

Fifteen of the largest 20 bonuses distributed by AIG, totaling about $30 million of their payments, have been returned, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Some of the bonus recipients have refused to give back the payments, others have been unable to be contacted, and other holdouts are still deliberating while they consider the tax ramifications, Cuomo told reporters during a conference call.

And Cuomo played hardball with these AIG folks, he was like Vito Corleone, if they don't want to be on the name revealing list give the money back. And who in their right mind want their name revealed for getting one of those AIG bonuses after you were part of almost destroying this country's financial system?

Though he denied any implicit threat, Cuomo seemed to reveal his negotiation tactics by emphasizing that those who return the money "will no longer be on a list that would ever be revealed."

Governor Patterson is going to have a hard primary next year.

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Obama Administration attempting to perform sweepers

Cleaning up executive pay for these banks, Wall Stree, should not be required by the government, period. The government should not have any say, AT ALL, about what private institutions do, as long as these companies follow the law. But we are in different waters, at different times.

What AIG did with their carelessness of ramifications to the financial markets in this country is still unbelievable. I know many are just angry, including myself, at the bonuses, but should anyone be surprised? Overall, I am not. President Obama made the best explanation of what AIG did when he sat on the couch chatting with Jay Leno from the Tonight Show. It was a small division of the company, AIG, including some overseas, who gambled the bank and came up very short. In fact some on the board and higher up claimed that they were unaware of what was going on and happened, but believe that if you believe the moon is pink. Thus, it meant that an emergency influx of cash to keep AIG solvent was made in September, 2007, beginning the crap shoot of saving a company that destroyed itself because we were told, "They are too big to fail....."

Here comes the oversight of executive pay.

I feel like this, since Wall Street and these banks are getting taxpayers money than they should be the first to be overhauled. It is these institutions that have put this country where it is at. We must be honest here, what happens to Wall Street affects us down to the very job we have, lost or trying to find. If the financial market is not stable, job freezes will continue, credit will not open up, and what is happening now will continue.

The irresponsibility of these companies has hurt us all. I don't blame folks for being angry at these executives, but the Obama Administration needs to do more. Most of these people need to be fired, removed from their office, so this country can try to move forward, especially with the AIG debacle. The Administration has not handled this well, let's be honest, they have not. I appreciate President Obama and his steadfastness with his Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, but Geithner has shown that he does not have the communicative savvy or the gravitas, yet, for this job.

Geithner is a tossup here, for many. I find his excuse for not knowing about AIG bonuses rather laughable, because he was right there in the fire when all this went down about AIG. Next the lame excuse of AIG and their contracts is another rolleyes. Contracts in this country are broken every single day; ask the automotive industry that is what mediation and courts are for. Lastly, Geithner did not show the gravitas, strength to tell AIG where they can kiss it, in professional terms, of course. How can you tell them where to go, when you were in the kitchen helping to create the stew that gave them the bonuses?

There is a disconnect here. A total disconnect. Too many in this administration have been too close to Wall Street, thus we saw what happened with AIG or what did not happen to AIG. Did the President know all the details, intricacies? No, I do not believe Barack Obama read every single contract regarding AIG, that is what cabinet secretaries and staff are for, but congress did not read all the tall-tell signs about AIG, either. Most in congress have not even read many of these bills that are presented in conference the ones they vote on the floor about, that is what their staff is for. Congress stated that they did not know that the bonus element was removed, some did and has started to come out with the admission of Senator Chris Dodd's involvement. As for the others who knew, it will come out. And, the D.C. outrage is manufactured bullshit, really it is. The premise that they did not know, or understand, is not believable, only laughable.

President Obama has a hard job ahead, extremely hard. One thing I do think he is doing right, that is taking it to the American people, stepping over Washington, DC. D.C. must understand, though they are all about ME, is that the American public is not in the D.C. area. The American Public is the rest of this country. Many are angry about the AIG fiasco, while many do not blame Obama for it. We all must remember, in the end while President Obama is taking the responsibility, all this bullshit was left by the Bush-Cheney crowd. Bring up Bush-Cheney and many on the right will shut up right away. In the end, there is nothing to say about it, because it is true.

Officials said the proposal would seek a broad new role for the Federal Reserve to oversee large companies, including major hedge funds, whose problems could pose risks to the entire financial system.

It will propose that many kinds of derivatives and other exotic financial instruments that contributed to the crisis be traded on exchanges or through clearinghouses so they are more transparent and can be more tightly regulated. And to protect consumers, it will call for federal standards for mortgage lenders beyond what the Federal Reserve adopted last year, as well as more aggressive enforcement of the mortgage rules.

The administration has been considering increased oversight of executive pay for some time, but the issue was heightened in recent days as public fury over bonuses spilled into the regulatory effort.

The officials said that the administration was still debating the details of its plan, including how broadly it should be applied and how far it could go beyond simple reporting requirements. Depending on the outcome of the discussions, the administration could seek to put the changes into effect through regulations rather than through legislation.

One proposal could impose greater requirements on company boards to tie executive compensation more closely to corporate performance and to take other steps to ensure that compensation was aligned with the financial interest of the company.

The new rules will cover all financial institutions, including those not now covered by any pay rules because they are not receiving federal bailout money. Officials say the rules could also be applied more broadly to publicly traded companies, which already report about some executive pay practices to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hard for any politician to not agree with what the Obama Administration is attempting above. In this bastion climate? When folks are thrown out of their homes, losing their jobs, small businesses cannot get credit? You think congress will not go along with this? They may try, but they better be very careful because the public outrage is hot and on fire.

And Chris Dodd? The banking chairman on the hill?

Well, he has his own problems starting back during the primaries. But, my beef with him has been his coziness with Countrywide and AIG. Too close for my comfort. Hard to regulate and vote against the problematic source that has given you millions for your campaign coffers and who knows what else. Dodd has a hard road next year to win. If he is that much of a liability and knowing Connecticut, maybe he should be primaried out. Dodd has been in that seat for a very long time, maybe it time for fresh eyes. Isn't this what the change campaign was all about?

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"The state of California has a tremendous partner in Barack Obama," says Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in Los Angeles, CA (Videos)

President Barack Obama is playing a bit of divide-and-conquer this week, pitting his Republican critics against GOP governors and mayors eager for the federal money that his hard-fought stimulus plan will bring.

One of those Republican notables is California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who joined Obama at a town hall meeting on Thursday in Los Angeles.

"The state of California has a tremendous partner in Barack Obama," said the governor, who also called the president's stimulus package "the greatest."

Governor Schwarzenegger introduces President Barack Obama, Video

8-year-old Ethan Lopez tells President Obama that his elementary school is in "big trouble" due to budget cuts.



And clip from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno

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The Fed, Treasury bumbling idiots

I don't care how good or bad the news is, the Obama Administration should have been kept abreast of every step of the bonus fiasco that is brewing about AIG.

The gasbags on morning joke continues fake outrage, well they do that every morning, but one thing I do agree with is this, the Obama Administration knew by late last week about these bonuses and the pounding of AIG by the Sunday morning talk shows was in full force. Now the public is weeding through the when, who, and how the administration knew about these outrageous payments.

We can point fingers all day long, but it comes down to this, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary failed in halting these bonuses, period. He knew about the bonuses and could not stop AIG from cutting the checks and issuing the checks by Friday.

The U.S. public owns 80% of AIG, which started to get major money pumped to them from the Bush Administration to stay afloat. Some hard decisions needs to be made about this company. Starting with the takeover from the U.S. government, the firing of management, the total shut down of that products division which put this company where it is at now to restore some confidence in management of this administration.

There is no way that a private company, taking public money, propped up by us, the taxpayers, and we, the taxpayers can not tell AIG where the wind blows?

Geithner is a smart guy, we know this, but is he the right guy for this job? Right now, NO.

As pressure mounted on AIG employees to return the bonuses, new details emerged yesterday about what the Fed, the Treasury Department and the White House knew regarding the payments and when. AIG executives said the Fed was informed three months ago by the company that it would pay $165 million by March 15 to employees working at its most troubled division. The Treasury and White House said they learned of the payments from Fed officials only days before they were due.

Close coordination between the Fed and the administration is now more important than ever as they near the launch of two signature programs to rescue the financial system, which together could reach $2 trillion and are aimed at reviving consumer lending and purchasing soured assets and loans from ailing banks.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, a central figure in the decision to bail out AIG last fall as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in an interview yesterday that he had not been aware of the size of the bonuses and the timing of the payments.

"I was stunned when I learned how bad this was on Tuesday [March 10]," Geithner said. "I shouldn't have been in that position, but it's my responsibility and I accept that."

Two days later, Geithner told the White House. The last-minute disclosure irked some of the president's senior advisers, but they refuse to point fingers now, saying the timing had little impact on the outcome or the president's public statements this week.

"Would I have liked an earlier warning system on this? Yeah," said David Axelrod, a senior White House adviser. "Would it have markedly changed things? Probably not. The legal constraints are the legal constraints."

[snip]

Democrats and Republicans in Congress are increasingly questioning how Geithner could not have known about the bonuses, given his past role in AIG's bailout, which has totaled more than $170 billion.

"I'm sick and tired of hearing the administration and the Secretary of the Treasury say, 'I just found out about it,' " Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.) said yesterday.

The shitty thing about all of this is that those making these decisions are the same players, mostly, who was for deregulation, crafted the deals that have come back to bite this administration in the "you know where" and comes up with this lame excuse that "we can't renegotiate these contracts". I am sorry but it smells of bullshit. If the auto industry can renegotiate, you mean to tell me the United States of America who OWNS 80% of AIG can not drag their asses to the table to do the same? It doesn't wash.

The Obama Administration needs to clean this up and I mean, yesterday. They deserve the criticism that they are getting right now and I don't think most will disagree. This is absolutely the opposite of what Obama campaign for since 2007. But there is something about Washington, D.C., where these folks get into a room, craft legislation, and somehow for the good of the people always fall short.

Obama Administration, clean it up, even if it means performing sweepers for a new Treasury Secretary.

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Pat Buchanan's Concerned Trolling on Hardball, (Video)

Really, this is a debate with Bob Shrum, Chris Matthews and the all of a sudden concern of Pat Buchanan for Barack Obama. Oh, brother....

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President Obama's Town Hall, Costa Mesa, California (Video and Transcript)

Transcript

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Senator Chris Dodd, (D-CT), Orchestrating the AIG Bonus Loophole (Video)

Senate Banking committee Chairman Christopher Dodd told CNN’s Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer Wednesday that he was responsible for adding the bonus loophole into the stimulus package that permitted AIG and other companies that received bailout funds to pay bonuses.

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Dodd is up for re-election next year.

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Obama: "The buck stops with me. I am responsible, I am the President of the United States" (Video)

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Obama is in California, the furor is rising about AIG

Seems like POTUS has townhall meetings scheduled in Orange County and Los Angeles, then sitting on Jay Leno's couch for tomorrow night's show. The backlash is brewing and coming even moreso since it has been revealed that the White House knew about these AIG bonuses.

I wrote over the weekend that it was possible that the White House had the wool pulled over its eyes with AIG's bonus dump, but that it too was possible that they knew from the orchestrated talking points on the Sunday's shows. Most reps from the White House was pointedly in talking about AIG, up to Bernanke on 60 Minutes.

Secretary Geithner knew these bonuses were coming, but failed on negotiating the terms of the contracts down from what was announced.

Obama Administration is walking a slippery slope here. What should have happened is that this information should have been up front to the public, but now the attack dogs like, morning joke are out there with red meat based on their fake outrage. Yes, if you already knew about these bonuses, how can it be real but orchestrated?

Time for Obama to get this under control, but I don't know if he can. The problem is that he is surrounded by people that were part of this mess like, Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner. These two were big players in this economy mess. And Geithner? Treasury Secretary? Too close to Wall Street for my taste, that is the major problem.

Lastly, it is going to be hard as heck for the Obama Administration to get another penny for these banks. AIG has destroyed the goodwill for the public. And yet, AIG is supposed to get another 30B in aid? Oh, but this time there will be restrictions? I don't blame the Obama Administration for all of this because much of this money was already allocated before Obama took office, but I do blame them for fake outrage on AIG bonuses that they already KNEW ABOUT.

His first appearance as president in a state that was a getaway for his predecessors could instead become a political test for Obama, whose administration has been trying to find its voice on the economy. His schedule includes a stop on Jay Leno's stage in Burbank after town hall-style meetings in Orange County on Wednesday and downtown Los Angeles on Thursday.

With the furor over the AIG bonuses, "if he doesn't have some really good answers, this could be a nightmare. It's not going to be enough to say, 'I feel your anger and we are looking into it,'" said University of California, Berkeley, political scientist Bruce Cain. "There has to be some sort of decisive action."

Judy Chen-Lee, a laid-off job counselor for the city of Santa Ana, has a ticket for the Orange County event and hopes to press the president about getting people back to work.

The economic stimulus money should be "dedicated to those most in need, who need jobs and retraining," she said. "The AIG situation is sad. There needs to be accountability."

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AIG bonus outrage keeps going (Video)

AIG IS A HOT ASS MESS....for real...LIKE BLAGO, IT JUST KEEPS MAKING NEWS AND BAD NEWS AT THAT.....MORE HERE.....

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Banks mired in bad loans

Again, I don't see how all these banks will make it. I know the notion is to keep pumping the mantra, to big to fail, but the public is not feeling that right now. They don't care and the feeling is good riddance to greedy rubbish anyway. The AIG outrage is the tipping point for many people out here. Case and point, I call my niece a freshman in college, she is busy with her studies and only know what she needs to know about current events. My niece even knew about AIG and said, "Obama needs to get that money back from those bonuses." Her world is about keeping her scholarship, working and studying, so for her to comment that people in her dorm are talking about the AIG fiasco says something. It states folks are not in the weeds or clouds, they are paying attention to what is going on. So, here comes these banks, especially the big ones. Some will fall, it will happen. Time for hard choices for the Obama Administration.

Foreclosures and bad loans raced through the banking industry in 2008, with the more than 8,000 U.S. banks registering a 149 percent increase in troubled assets, according to a new analysis of bank financial reports to the federal government.

While a large majority of banks were still healthy, 163 ended the year with more troubled loans than capital, up from only 13 a year earlier, according to the analysis of data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. by msnbc.com and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University in Washington, D.C.

Nationwide, seven out of every 10 banks had less capital to cover potential loan losses than a year earlier. The analysis relies on information reported quarterly to the FDIC, calculating each bank's troubled asset ratio, which compares troubled loans against the bank's ability to withstand losses.

Although attention has focused on the largest banks, which hold the lion's share of deposits, the analysis shows how widespread the problems in the banking industry became in 2008 as the mortgage meltdown and broader recession unfolded. Msnbc.com is publishing information on the nation's 400 largest banks as well as all banks with high ratios of troubled loans at year’s end. And the American University group has created a new Web site, BankTracker, to provide information on the financial health of every bank in the country.

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Keith Olbermann on AIG Outrage with Robert Reich....(Video)

What's the most outrageous of this is that most of the banks AIG is paying bonuses to have received BAILOUT MONEY...unbelievable....

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AIG probably won't be able to pay us back, US, the taxpayers (Video)

Enough of too big to fail. If the government owns around 80% of this company it is time to take it over and fire management. This company is scurrilous!!! Shaming AIG? PUHLEAZE....this company don't give a DAMN!!!!!

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Hard to swallow the truth while the government is in OUTRAGE over AIG, Tent Cities, Slums are real (Video)

This is near Ontario Airport, one of the burbs of Los Angeles. And Sacramento and Phoenix have tent cities popping up, too.

Sacramento is below:



Folks, families, individuals getting thrown out on the street is real, not FAKE. We sure care about AIG and the rest, not failing and this just breaks your heart. And evictions, look here.

h/t Jeffrey Feldman

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Obama slams AIG and Supports Small Business (Video and Transcript)

I guess the White House got the message. They are forcefully going out after AIG to get this money back. Again, I am with Barney Frank here, it is time for some pink slips to go out. In the real world this shit would not be tolerated, at all.

Transcript of President Obama's Partial Remarks on AIG

But before I talk about the new steps we're taking to get credit flowing to small businesses across our country, I want to comment on the news about executive bonuses at AIG.

This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed.

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

In the last six months, AIG has received substantial sums from the US Treasury. I've asked Secretary Geithner to use that leverage and pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.

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.

This isn't just a matter of dollars and cents. It's about our fundamental values.

All across the country, there are people who work hard and meet their responsibilities every day, without the benefit of government bailouts or multi-million dollar bonuses. And all they ask is that everyone, from Main Street to Wall Street to Washington, play by the same rules.

That is an ethic we must demand.

What this situation also underscores is the need for overall financial regulatory reform, so we don't find ourselves in this position again, and for 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.

Transcript on Small Business Owners

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Publie outrage of AIG

I wrote yesterday, that I have HAD IT, with AIG.

I don't care what the amount in the large millions these bonuses were, you mean to tell me that either the former Bush Administration or the Obama Administration did not ask about these bonuses? I think they did ask, AIG just was not truthful about it. Why? The way and I will write shady way this all was spilled out this weekend and the letter of CEO, Edward Liddy dropped on Treasury and the White House.

The tough talk time is over for all these corporations, yes, let's call it what they are PRIVATE CORPORATIONS, the time of verbal outrage is over. Action and stern action is needed to send a message to these corporations and Wall Street. Why? Because the public is sick, just sick of reading about all this money going to these banks and corporations and their arrogance and constantly giving us, the taxpayers the finger while they still whoop-de-do it like this was 1999.

Should the Obama Administration be worried about public outrage? You betcha.

The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street, worried that anger at financial institutions could also end up being directed at Congress and the White House and could complicate President Obama’s agenda.

The Obama Administration should be very worried. The public is behind this president, no doubt, but when you constantly read the f*ck ups of these banks, AIG, etc., the anger of the public is over the top. People out hear are working hard, working for LESS MONEY, scrimping by, worried about bills, their kids college tuition, if they will have a job tomorrow and we have to repeatedly, again repeatedly read about blowhard corporations and banks taking our money only to give themselves bonuses in the MILLIONS almost BILLIONS of dollars? People out here may not understand the total financial meltdown, which is something the Obama Administration needs to be clearer about, but they surely understand average joe and josetta's tax dollars being given to these corporations and banks and they don't play by the rules but continue to act like nothing happened.

“We’ve got enormous problems that need to be addressed,” David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, said in an interview. “And it’s hard to address because there’s a lot of anger about the irresponsibility that led us to this point.”

“This has been welling up for a long time,” he said.

Mr. Obama’s aides said any surge of such a sentiment could complicate efforts to win Congressional approval for the additional bailout packages that Mr. Obama has signaled will be necessary to stabilize the banking system.

This is the real issue. The public will have no sentiment for giving any more money to these corporations and banks, and quite frankly they shot themselves in the foot on this one. Their excessive lavishness, no carishness, continuing business as usual mentality has led the public to turn around and want to give them the F'U you when it comes to more dollars being given to them.

Even as Mr. Summers was denouncing A.I.G. for the bonuses, he suggested that there was little if anything the government could do to stop them, seconding the conclusion of Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. But even if their reasoning was legally sound, they also risked having the administration look ineffectual in the face of what Mr. Summers said was the worst financial abuse of the last 18 months, since the economy began turning down in earnest.

“Never underestimate the capacity of angry populism in times of economic stress,” said Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and labor secretary under President Bill Clinton. “A big challenge for President Obama will be to maintain a rational and tactical public discussion in the midst of this severe downturn. The desire for culprits at times like this is strong.”

In a further development, A.I.G. on Sunday named dozens of financial institutions that benefited from its huge rescue loan from the Federal Reserve last fall. The list included Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia.

Nothing the government can do about it? It starts with not giving them anymore money. I know this may sound harsh, or even unrealistic, but just sit back and listen to the public, they are fed the f*ck up with this. Reich is right, don't underestimate the public's anger that is brewing and it is hotter than a pot of coffee.

The Obama Administration was handed a desk load of problems by the Bush Administration and this mess with AIG comes from the Bush Administration, but going forward the decisions by the White House must be on point, must quell the anger out here, if not it will be a very bumpy ride ahead.

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Stop saying they are "Too Big To Fail"....LET THEM

AIG that is it. Really it is it.

Even after watching Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on 60 Minutes tonight, who I might add was eloquent, reserved, humble, I still say as a tax payer let them fail. Even Chairman Bernanke was hot under the collar by giving AIG money, but has to read headlines that they are giving themselves bonuses.


Fed Chairman Bernanke's 60 Minutes Interview, Part Two

The 'effin' moxey of AIG is enough. This company reminds me of Blago, it just won't do the right thing, or more importantly the controversy will never stop.

AIG has taken over 160B dollars of U.S. taxpayers dollars to keep this company propped up but has that moxey to pay out bonuses in the range of 450M? President Obama this is where the rubber hits the road for U.S. taxpayers.

American International Group Inc. will pay $450 million in bonuses to employees in its financial products unit. That division was at the heart of AIG's collapse last fall, which compelled the U.S. government to provide $173.3 billion in aid to keep it running.

The CEO, Edward Liddy of AIG told Treasury Secretary Geithner that their hands were tied in giving out these bonuses.

CEO Edward Liddy told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that the next payments to employees of the financial products unit are due on Sunday, and added “quite frankly, AIG’s hands are tied.”

Well, of course the outrage is that, outrage it is natural. Now it is time for action. Action from the White House.

See, the average joe and josetta don't understand why we are throwing money down the well to the likes of AIG, as they use the money we are giving them to keep them functioning, but they turn around and payout bonuses that are unbelievable. See, the joes and josettas out there are struggling. Many of them are one paycheck from being thrown on the street, but they constantly have to read about these companies and Wall Street that take our money and then throw the finger at us. Yes, Obama Administration, they are throwing the finger at us. What is next?

Obama Administration, I am smelling the rubber burning. Remember the segment of the Sci-Fi, Horror movie, Aliens? OK, it is the part of the movie when the marines while in the den of Aliens are told to give up their weapons and can only use flame torches, at this juncture one marine says, "How are we suppose to protect ourselves, use harsh language?" Well, we all know how that scene ended, what we don't know is how this scene with the likes of AIG and others will end. Harsh language is being touted, here,here, here, and here. Outrage all from D.C., which is fine and dandy, but Obama Administration and Washington, D.C. the public demands action. We mean stern action, not more harsh language.

AIG is an example of what the public does not want, which makes it hard for the Obama Administration to move forward with its financial package. The actions of AIG, Citibank, Bank of America, etc., are examples of reckless management and disregard of its financial situation. It is we, the taxpayers that these blowhards are begging for our help and we have to continue to read about bonuses paid out in the mulit-millions while Americans are losing jobs, in line for food, tent cities popping up in this country, unemployment numbers are astounding, people don't know if they will have a job tomorrow and many in this country are one pay check from the street!!! And we have to read about AIG taking our money and paying themselves bonuses????

Obama Administration, do you get it? We are angry and yes, stop giving them our money if they don't respect the process. Which means they don't respect you and definitely do not respect we, the taxpayers. Yes, we are angry and yes, let them fail.

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