Our elected representatives and their political appointees have known that the executives receiving the bonuses were not guilty of corporate malfeasance, yet they have treated them as if they had. Jenkins writes about the actions of several elected officials. I quote his article on three, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Treasury Secretary Geithner, and President Obama.
As far back as October, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo had summoned the Treasury-appointed Mr. Liddy to hammer out a deal on AIG's pay practices. Said Mr. Cuomo in a statement afterward: "These actions are not intended to jeopardize the hard-earned compensation of the vast majority of AIG's employees, including retention and severance arrangements, who are essential to rebuilding AIG and the economy of New York."
On March 3, Mr. Geithner himself was quizzed during a congressional hearing in detail about the AIGFP retention plan by Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley -- a week before Mr. Geithner now says he heard of the plan.
It may be that the full picture was kicked up to him only when a political decision was needed, but by then his one decent choice was to insist on the bonuses' legality. However politically inopportune the bonuses may be, the president only dirtied himself by authorizing a feel-good, bipartisan hate storm aimed at innocent AIG employees. And it's hard to believe Mr. Obama would have done so, or the subsequent spectacle would have unfolded as it did, without Mr. Geithner's seminal prevarications (and we say this fully acknowledging that he's had a rough ride in an inhumanly difficult job).
It is difficult to measure the size of the hate storm. After all, some people may not like the high levels of executive compensation but not support legislation mandating lower compensation or taxing high compensation at exorbitant rates. But if hate mail is a good measure of the intensity of feelings, our elected representatives have poured gasoline on a raging fire. Andrew Pergam, representing the Connecticut/News in “Threats to AIG: ‘We Will Get Your Children,’” (HT Drudge) gives many examples of hate mail received by AIG employees.
-- All you motherf***ers should be shot. Thanks for f***ing up our economy then taking our money.
-- Dear Sir: Ya'll should have the balls and come clean and give back the bonuses. I know you would never do this so the gov't ought to take you out back and shoot everyone of you crooked sonofb****es...I would be very careful when I went out side. This is just a warning. If I were ya'll I would be real afraid. Thanks, Bill.
-- I don't hope that bad things happen to the recipients of those bonuses. I really hope that bad things happen to the children and grandchildren of them! Whatever hurts them the most!!
And my favorite,
-- We will hunt you down. Every last penny. We will hunt your children and we will hunt your conscience. We will do whatever we can to get those people getting the bonuses. Give back the money or kill yourselves.
The emphasis added is mine, and I must ask if the author received inspiration from Senator Grassley of Iowa.
Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of AIG’s financial products unit, defends his and many of his coworkers actions in “Dear A.I.G., I Quit!,” NYTimes, March 25, 2009.
I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage…
Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.
DeSantis, like so many others, has been hurt b AIG employees who participated in the failed unit of AIG.
I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.
The popular and political hate are having an impact on AIG employees.
As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.
Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.
The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.
DeSantis is not returning his bonus, nor is he keeping it.
I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree.
That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn.
[1] I would like to thank a coworker who listened to me sound off at the political injustices foisted on AIG employees, and rightly pointed out that I needed to cool down, at least a little.
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Interesting post, brings in to light that the people receiving the blame do not necessarily deserve of all the negative publicity brought to light about AIG. Most of these comments listed seem rather like fits of jeolousy and threatening their families is crossing the line and displaces the publics dislike of CEOs.
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