March 19, 2009 08:45 AM
Barney Frank on the AIG Bonuses: Bring a Shareholders Lawsuit
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David Shuster talks to Barney Frank about the AIG hearing today and the bonuses that the public is worked up over. Frank believes that we should bring a shareholders lawsuit to recover the money.
I'm not happy about AIG handing out these bonuses either but in the bigger scheme of things wonder how much of this is a distraction when compared to the billions that have been paid out to these companies that has not been accounted for. This gives the GOP something to howl over and pretend they care about taxpayers after eight years of them using our government as their feeding trough.
will continue for a while longer. Why quit now?
...that this bonus thing is just so much noisome cover to distract we great unwashed masses from the possibility that AIG is nothing more than a middle-man scam to help other banks who have accepted bailout money to a double dip. Their losses were covered by their own direct receipt of bailout funds, and then they make out again when AIG's bailout money is passed on to them. Nice arrangement. America, the land of opportunities.
His position allowed him to see the sausage get made over the past few years. Any idiot could look at the h3:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/Cur...
and see the country was insolvent.
And now, with the bailouts, the h3 isn't even making any sense (note how the negative numbers suddenly fly into VERY high positive numbers. Prior to the negative numbers it tended to hover around $40 billion.
Frank is not *quite* as guilty as the rethugs, but he has all kinds of money-blood on his hands, and I think should be held accountable, like the rest of these losers (Reid, Pelosi, et al)
It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
-George Carlin
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/200...
While it may be a drop in the bucket compared to what will eventually be spent trying to jump start the economy, the bottom line is, if the past 8 years have taught us nothing else, it's taught us that incompetence should NOT be rewarded, let alone rewarded handsomely. If anything, that money should've been used to further reinforce the business end. People get bonuses when they do well.
If it's a distraction at all, it's because Republicans now realize that the Obama Administration didn't QUITE do everything they could to insure this bonus money did not get paid, and they see it as a way to embarrass Obama, whilst pretending to care about the voters. Too bad their unofficial leaders didn't get that memo - Limbaugh, Back & Hannity are all touting the fact that the execs deserved their bonuses. Pick a script and stick with it guys, the hive is counting on you.
that the whole money system will collapse if ransoms are not paid is a bluff that has to be called sooner or later in any case. So Mr. Obama might as well get on with it.
The NYT today said Obama is probably mostly annoyed with the issue; one, because it was brought up by these greedmeisters, and two because he's having to deal with with a collapsing economy worth trillions of dollars, and this is only in the low millions.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
AIG executives are acting with integrity and plan to vigorously defend ourselves against these baseless accusations!
There's a PR pitch
Conservatives call their detractors exactly what they are.
This gives the GOP something to howl over and pretend they care about taxpayers after eight years of them using our government as their feeding trough.
How many of these folks still owe back taxes?
Do they still need a tax break?
If we obsess on the bonuses, the real crime, that is the deliberate manipulation of bond and derivative ratings to make them buyable, will slip by. There is a conspiracy at AIG, the bond raters and most of the banks to create this scam. People need to go to jail.
...they need to be put up against the wall...
is these guys know the disorganized masses will never organize.
That's why they get away with this sh!#
span is now about one second and they know it.
folks, the crimes already happened, from the turn of the millenium until Lehman Bros went under and the collapse became real. the bad deals, the knowingly bad deals that AIG KNEW for a FACT it didn't have nearly the resources to cover - THAT is the crime!
the US Treasury making good on AIG's debts, and paying back the many, many, many people they cheated out of various vast sums of money is not a crime! there is no choice in the matter other than - does the US Treasury channel the $$ through AIG, or just give it directly to those who are owed?
but its all beside the point. the Justice Dept. should be ordering an investigation into the hows and whens and whys of the various criminal activities that brought us to this point. and that will involve grilling Bush's people, not Tim Geithner, and those who worked at AIG & supervised these activities AT THE TIME THEY WERE GOING ON!
doesn't anyone care who the real criminals are here? or is everyone just letting their brains dribble out of their ears due to an overload of 'populist rage'???
idol to notice.
they're just mad and wanting to take down whoever's face they see on TV first who is remotely connected to 'banks' or 'the economy'.
this whole debate about these bonuses is some seriously stupid, lowest-common-denominator shit. this company left our govt holding the bag for hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars! yeah these bonuses are ridiculous, and our legislators (like Barney Frank) are idiots for just handing the $$ over with practically no stipulations. idiots. but this is drop in the bucket stuff, and we're going to focus ALL of our energy on getting back barely anything, compared to prosecuting the people who actually engineered the global economic collapse! only in America.
coming up?
My bile.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
distraction or not...there are fundamental principles at stake here.
We have past the slippery slope...we're now mired in the muck at the bottom of the landslide.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
it might be just a drop in the bucket, but it is crucial that those responsible not further enrich themselves at our literal expense.
i don't want the nation to start to accept these pay-offs just because it isn't a large enough percentage of the total blackmail...
We've had no problem creating an industry out of frying the little guy for minor transgressions (drugs, child support, traffic tickets), while ignoring (or moving slowly on) the bigger issues.
Why stop now?
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
MOSCOW, March 19 (Reuters) - China and other emerging nations back Russia's call for a discussion on how to replace the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency, a senior Russian government source said on Thursday. Russia has proposed the creation of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial institutions, among other measures in the text of its proposals to the April G20 summit published last Monday.
this is something Wall Street could get behind. Why hold on to U.S. notes when the grass is greener on the other side?
as the primary reserve currency. We will be a banana republic, and the GOP and capitalists will have proven Marx right and Reagan wrong.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Banana Republic?
The country's already chock full of Banana republicans.
Levick Strategic Communications has been hired by AIG to repair their image. their irreparable image.
this is as insulting as the tens of millions of our dollars paying off those that helped destroy the economy.
how much is AIG paying Levick Strategic Communications with our money? anything more than 7 cents should be immediately stopped.
AIG's reputation is in tatters, as it should be. deservedly so. any of the taxpayers' money going to AIG to help repair their image, their clout, and--in the end--save their bloated compensation packages should be stopped dead in its tracks.
[moved from Mike's round-up, fits better here]
"Stategic"
save the reputation of a company that should be in receivership and selling off its assets for pennies on the dollar.
Ya know what, fuck this whole country.
Once again...we have proven ourselves to be the BIGGEST MORONS ON THE PLANET.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
bang bang shoot shoot
sign up early so you get a front row seat.
For every soldier we put on the battlefield, the Chinese will put 10.
Oh...and their weapons blow up just as good as ours.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UplNIn6cZiE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEyvy-waDuU&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Uaxc4VDtA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
This AiG Bonuses is a side show...
here are some points...
-not that its an issue, This sum is only less than 0.1 per cent – one thousandth – of the $183 BILLION that the U.S. Treasury gave to AIG as a “pass-through” to its counterparties
- The largest recipient turned out to be just what earlier financial reports had rumored: Paulson’s own firm, Goldman Sachs, headed the list. It was owed $13 billion in counterparty claims
-the questions are, who benefits? And second, why now?
-what does Sen. Schumer, Rep. Frank, Pres. Obama and other Wall Street sponsors gain from this public outcry? For starters, it depicts them as hard taskmasters of the banking and financial sector, not its lobbyists scurrying to execute one giveaway after another.
-Regarding the timing, The uproar about AIG bonuses has effectively distracted attention from the AIG counterparties who received the $183 billion in Treasury giveaways
read the full artical by Michael Hudson, The Real AIG Conspiracy here http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?contex...
you are right, the BIGGER issue (the entire wall street blackmail) cannot be lost in the fight over bonuses. yet, no matter how small a fraction of the total amount, these crooks deserve nothing--especially if i am paying for it.
I agree, also a correction on my first point
- not that its NOT an issue,
off course, no one should get Bonuses at AIG, especially funded by Public Money.
US Rep Proposes Bill To Use Pension Assets For Banking System
Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., suggests using public pension funds a guaranteed rate of return in exchange for buying the preferred stock, or for loaning the government their money to loosen the credit freeze.
"By guaranteeing public employee pension fund investments in financial institutions, the federal government will use its balance sheet as a way to inject much needed funds into the nation's banking system rather than using more public money," the New York Democrat said.
RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kiss the rest of your money goodbye.
Keep it up America...watch American Idol with your dick firmly in your hand.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Nah, more like finger down throat...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Or fingers in ears.
If I don't wake up good luck!
AIG people greedy for money they negotioated for? No Biggie.
Govt gives away billions of dollars to a failing company and gets what in return? NOTHING! This makes me the most upset. Companies prove they are incompetent and unethical and when we have them over the barrel what concessions do we get for our billions? NADA! Grrrr!
Free Marketers/conservatives like to use the theory of a free market to justify selfishness and fucking over poor people. Yet these bonuses prove that its not about compensation based on performance. Its about grabbing as much as you can, deserved or not, when you can. Which is fine but don't fucking whine about welfare.
Is this the best Barney has to offer? Hand your money over to lawyers rather than CEOs? The legal proceedings would drag on for years without resolution. Haul the bastards up in front of Congress to explain what the bonuses are for and why they are worth receiving them.
In addition to the shareholders, perhaps those whose homes, pensions and other accounts held or impacted by AIG's Financial Products Division should bring a lawsuit to recoup the money they lost due to fraud and risky practices. Maybe this is a way to "redistribute" the bailout money out of the financial institutions and into the pockets of those they defrauded.
Of course, it would be much more efficient if the government bailed out the citizens themselves who were defrauded and let the financial companies sink or swim without any taxpayer money. They've shown they're "creative" with brilliant minds who must be rewarded with millions in bonuses, so they can apply that brainpower to legal ways of saving themselves.
It doesn't appear that AIG has learned any lessons in caution. From an online blurb:
I agree with Frank that the shareholders lawsuit is the proper remedy in our present system. This just exposes another crack in capitalism. It has been a clarion call that shareholders will regulate the guys at the top in order to keep things on the up and up. Doesn't work. The system must change. Shareholders were ponzied because of their greed.
"Barney Frank on the AIG Bonuses: Bring a Shareholders Lawsuit"
Would we not be "suing" ourselves?
Insuring, Banking and investing have what historical activity?
In the 1930's they come up with that Glass-Steagall Act, just about the time Morgan<>Stanley teamed up. FDIC - When? Banks cannot go belly up.
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allows what? AIG gets a boatload of cash out of our pockets, based on a 1930's statute via our friends at the Fed/Treasury.(First things first, ya know?) Things start to crumble before we even hear of the word Tarp (By the way, backwards, means "Ass") Though AIG has had a snack to hold'em over thanks to the friendly lunch lady. :-)
AIG, the Feds Bastard child, make that AIG(FP) has roped in the world and the Big guys start to hemorrhage and AIG-FP only has 10 bandages. So the rats transform into TARP welfare applicants. "On September 22, 2008, the last two bulge bracket investment banks in the US, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, both announced that they would become traditional bank holding companies, bringing an end to the era of investment banking on Wall Street."
Almost all financial transactions go through the Federal Reserve AKA the Fed. (They are the ultimate insider trading mechanism ever to be created)! Money from China... yup, sure. You heard the AIG guy say they gave a bunch of toxic crap to the Fed, they so intelligently accepted. :-/ Ya getta chance look what happened to the trains back awhile...
"In 1968 the NYC merged with its former rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, to form Penn Central (the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad joined in 1969). That company soon went bankrupt and was taken over by the federal government and merged into Conrail in 1976. " See who who sat on those boards!
Who says life has to be easy... These are interesting times!
Oh yes, > Fed's Balance Sheet Expands, Buying Up To $300B Treasury Bonds, $750 Billion Mortgage Bonds That Fed is one rich dude. :-P
[ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/18/feds... ]
Study the symptoms not the virus...
With 80% of the company, why not just fire the entire board of directors? Seems like a much more effective way of going about things; while it wouldn't get the money back, it would go further toward fixing the underlying problem.
They (and Bush's administration as well) have allowed this to get incredibly messy. And dangerous.
They should have let ALL of these companies fail.
As it stands, they're bailing out failures, and where it ends, nobody knows.
This will only serve to exacerbate the problem, for obvious reasons: A country that's already in debt over its head is going MORE into debt buying BAD INVESTMENTS. On its face, it's ridiculously bad.
Get out the tools and put the screws to 'em Barney!
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
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