STOP WHINING! YOU ARE STILL RICH!

I for one, have no sympathy for you.

First, your company went under. It doesn't matter that your division turned a profit.

There are plenty of people on the job market who don't have the option of resigning. They have already been laid off.

I have no doubt you are sincere in your gripes, but your lack of understanding of the public outrage at your company's bonuses, and your petulant attitude do NOT help your case.

So hush. Live on the bonuses you made while playing a game that, while legal, seems to be unethical to the majority of the population.

Sincerely,

Although, the letter writer to WaPo did not disclose his affiliation with AIG and it did not help, once he was outed that is. Wonder if he is shilling for poor Mr DeSantis. Digby nails this type of petulance with the term corporate narcissism. Worth a read.

The Washington Post published an op-ed today by Martin Feldstein. Feldstein explains how Obama's proposed limitation on the deductibility of charitable contributions by upper-income taxpayers is a horrible idea. He's identified as "an economics professor at Harvard University [and] president emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research."

One affiliation the Post left out is that Martin Feldstein is a longtime member of AIG's Board of Directors. He's also a member of the board's Finance Committee.

House lawmakers are softening their stance on denying bonuses to employees of bailed-out financial institutions after President Barack Obama warned them against alienating the industry.

I have little doubt that he will end up with another high paying job somewhere.  

It is in the taxpayers' best interest that the dismantling of AIG's business units is done in a way that maximizes returns.  In many cases this will require good efforts on the part of employees who have no guarantee of a job once the lights are turned out.  It would be noble of them to work for free despite being vilified.  

He's right in that AIG owes him his money, seems like he's forgetting AIG is broke.  He's within his rights to sue and get in line with the rest of them holding IOU's from AIG.

Mr. DeSantis may be right to be angry with his employer for leading him down the garden path; I'd be angry if I had worked for nothing on the basis of a promise that more was coming to me.  If it's the principle of the thing, now seems like an odd and ironic time to be acquainting himself with principles, don't you think?

apparently, mr. desantis isn't all that bright. had he been reading the papers or listening to something other than rush limbaugh of an evening, he might have noticed the economy, led by such as his employer, had recently imploded.

After having examined the situation, they decided that it would need to be kept afloat as any act of default on the part of AIG would have caused a massive upheaval, and perhaps a collapse, of the financial system.

They proceeded to provide AIG with enough capital to meet it's obligations, in full. They did not have the power to go to those that were owed and renegotiate for some percentage on the dollar. If AIG had been unable to pay even $1. that it was obligated to pay out, that would have been considered a default.

So, Citigroup and Bank of America were paid in full, as per the terms of the binding contracts that they had with AIG; why should the binding contracts of their employees be treated differently?

As to BTD's argument that they would not have been paid had the Fed not stepped in, neither would Citigroup or Bank of America, nor the thousands of lower salaried employees who did nothing wrong. That's exactly why they did step in.

Of course the dollar amounts are repugnant but they are also irrelevant. The Fed decided that AIG needed to be kept afloat and sadly, the bonuses are part of the cost of doing so, whether they are $1. or $10M or $100M. It is a painful lesson hopefully well learned.

Unless of course you're the DNC- then you can do whatever you want to obtain the desired result.

You might want to start with that error in your comment.

please explain what the DNC has to do with any of this. this should be entertaining.

since those receiving those "performance" bonuses most clearly failed, in a ginormous way, to perform, there is no contractual obligation to pay them. let them sue if they think otherwise.

as the 80% owner of the issued and outstanding voting stock of AIG, we can pretty much vote to do whatever the hell we want, as long as it's not illegal.

if mr. desantis doesn't like it, he can always sue.

In order to bolster his political popularity he is playing the class card and many on the left and right are more then willing to give up their freedom as long as the result is hard times for the "rich".

The problem is of course that once you ceed power to the goverment its hard to give it back.

Quite ironic that the same mob rule that got us the Patriot Act, Guantanamo etc... that the left was more then happy to complain about is equally ignored as long as the extension of government power is done for the greater good of punishing the rich.

How long till Obama finds it necessary to start calling someone makeing 200K rich, or 150K or anyone who isn't directly taking money fromt he government.