Inside AIG, a sense of betrayal...

[lblanchard]

Well, this is nice. Now that the administration, Congress, and the press have whipped up public opinion to the point that there are hordes of angry citizens with pitchforks and torches outside AIG headquarters, we learn that we've been blaming the folks who are trying to unravel the mess, not the ones who made it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/18/AR2009031804104.html?sid=ST2009031801503

These folks have walked back the mess at AIG so that we're looking at $1.7 trillion of bad investments rather than $2.7 trillion, and now their very lives are in danger. You need to read this. It's from the Washington Post, not the rightosphere.

I don't think this is going to end well.

Comments

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Nice that the Mob isn't going after the asshats that actually fomented the whole mess. You know, the ones in DC. Frank, Dodd, etc

[montieth.livejournal.com]

You know what really takes the cake in all of this?

The whole reason to give a bailout is to prevent a company going under, it's assets being sold for pennies on the dollar and investors in it's products and it's stock NOT taking a bath on the securities. The point is preventing the nullification of the contracts through bankruptcy and trying to save the company.

Democrats bailed them out, wrote the legislation deliberately and then turned around and have more or less executed this company. It's not going to stay afloat. So basically they poured a whole bunch of tax payer money into the thing, made a big 3 ring circus out of it and then killed the patient on the table.

I gotta wonder if that was deliberate for some political purpose or just sheer incompetence.

[marileeann.livejournal.com]

I've been following this all week. I watched Liddy take abuse from some Congressmen the other day. He was admirable in his restraint, considering he had absolutely nothing to do with AIG when this whole mess started.

Like you, I fear for the people still there trying to fix things. I am unfortunately not surprised that no one responsible for writing/passing that monstrosity of a bill is stepping forward in any noticeable way to accept blame.

When Liddy read the death threats, and Barney Frank blew it off with a 'yeah, yeah, we've all had death threats' response, I was appalled at his callous attitude.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Barney Frank, the Duke of Moral Hazard! Mr. "I'd like to roll the dice a little more on affordable housing" Frank. Memo to Mr. Frank: you chose to be a public figure. These folks toiling to drain the swamp didn't.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Meant to add -- if I were Liddy I'd say "here's your dollar a year salary back, you fix this mess." He's basically a volunteer and they're attacking him as though he had AIG trillions squirreled away in a Swiss bank account.

[marileeann.livejournal.com]

Ah, Laura, that's pretty much exactly what I've been thinking. I'd walk if I were him. (He?)

Do you ever check the liberal blogs? dailykos, Huffington Post, etc? It's strange that this is not at all the focus, there, except as a "blame Republicans" refrain. They're still railing about Bush, the "inherited" problem and waiting for National Health Care. The immediacy of the financial crisis seems to be just a blip on the screen for most commenters. Not a mention of the projected increase in the deficit.

If I could ignore it, maybe I'd feel better about things.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I'd feel better if I weren't so close to "retirement age." I don't have that many earning years left to me to ride this thing out.

[chakolate.livejournal.com]

If I could ignore it, maybe I'd feel better about things.

But that's just it, isn't it? How can we, as grandparents, ignore this? Our grandchildren (and their children and grandchildren) are the ones who will be paying for this.

[chakolate.livejournal.com]

Okay, if that article is correct, I take back my comments in the other thread about accountability. It looks like the accountability is there, and that they earned their bonuses.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

The WashPo doesn't strike me as a seething hotbed of right-wing apologias, so I'm inclined to take their word for it in this case. Also, there's that phrase "retention bonus," which is now disappearing from the reporting on this case.