The AIG Bonus Shenanigan

The Notion of Fact v. The Idea of Fiction: The Pirates of the AIG and the Tragedy of American Democracy    

By Jimmy M.

 As of two weeks ago, President Obama’s bailout to the banking industries passed giving the endangered banks some much needed help. AIG, one of the banks that received a portion of the bailout money, created public outrage by giving 170 million dollars (taken from the bailout mind you) to its employees as bonuses. All this has already transpired, so why am I continuing to beat a dead horse? To that I would answer in the negative, for I hope to end the discussion of this blame game among politicians and have someone fess up to their actions. As it stands right now, three major figures within our government have been pointed at and have been somewhat condemned. The first is Christopher Dodd, remember him? The guy who was vying for the Democratic Presidential nominee in as little as 8 or 9 months ago? He is most notoriously linked to the AIG bonus scheme with the passage of the Dodd Amendment. The Dodd Amendment was a write in by Dodd that allowed AIG to give their employees bonuses. That argument sees Dodd taking the fall with the logic being, “Hey! Why are you angry at us? When we reviewed and voted on that bill, that wasn’t stipulated under our watch. Besides, we only had an hour to vote on the bill due to the urgency and alarm expressed by the President concerned with the health of the economy”. But then, one must see this as only the lowest rank in the political hierarchy. In today’s society, it would make sense that the little guy takes the fall, even if it was the case where he was only following orders from someone above (?).

     The second argument and person that stands on the hot seat and may be the person to get the ax as a result is Timothy Geithner, the current US Secretary of the Treasury. Geithner’s role with the Obama administration is to be the economic advisor and “financial minister” who deals with domestic, international, financial, and tax policies. Here one could argue that Geithner should take the blame because he allegedly discussed it with AIG members in November of 2008, well before Obama got into office and maybe even he assumed the outcome a little beforehand. Protesters also feel that Geithner is responsible because of his expressed duties as treasurer. If this argument should be the case, is it then possible that we will see a new position added to the cabinet, one that works cooperatively with the treasurer? My guess is this is probably very unlikely. My gripe with this argument is the omittance of Ben Bernanke. It seems self-evident that should Geithner take the fall, Bernanke has to be also somewhat responsible. We could even go one step further as to say Henry Paulson should be added to that list. And why are all these people public enemy number one? For all except one, they are part of the declining banking system. Two of the three mentioned are at the heart of the problem, instead of being investigated, they get a free pass. Need I mention anymore about Geithner other than the fact that he was the head of the NY Federal Reserve before taking his post under the Obama administration? Geithner does not speak on behalf o the American people; he speaks on behalf of the “Wall Street robber barons” a clique that is quickly ascending to notoriety and infamy at an astounding pace.

     The third argument for who should be held accountable is perhaps the most compelling. As I mentioned before, the arguments are patterned in the way of climbing the government ranks. The first that we looked at was from the very bottom of the pyramid. Now we will take our turn at questioning the very top of the pyramid, the President. I find this argument to be the most intriguing of the three. People who believe Obama is at fault exclaim that the President was the very last person to see the bill before it was put into law. Therefore, one can conclude that the final version had to go through the executive office before it can be taken into action. Many believe that Obama is hypocritical for expressing outrage on the “Tonight Show” over the AIG bonuses because of the aforementioned claims.  This argument strikes me as curious because to some degree there is fact but than to another degree there is some distortion. For example, President Obama gave orders to Congress to vote on the bill in an hour’s time. No more and no less. Should President Obama have been aware of the bonus stipulation, wouldn’t he have polished the details just a little bit more? He also set up orders to review future banking industry practices, not the current failing ones. I think there is a legitimate concern with Obama’s response to the bonuses and swift response which I use the adjective swift very loosely.

     My take then on the AIG bonus fraud is no different than those of the past. I equate what went down within AIG to be nothing different than what happened at Enron. The only difference is the fashion in which the money was laundered and who that money was taken from in order to give to someone else. The people who should be given blame are in fact the AIG. I will admit, there is some underhanded tactics between the company and the government going on but in order to bring about any immediate change we must return to the scene of the crime and put out the fire. Prosecute figures within this company first, and then the public will be given the chance to force the tycoons of the country to spill out the juicy details and unstated facts. The prevalent sense of greed by those social elites is unsettling, particularly in a time where there is no wafer to live off of and the bread our country currently relies on is going stale.

     However, this is a small amount of hope. Here, I would like to take the opportunity to mention that a bill will be discussed this Friday, April 4^th that would see the Federal Reserve begin to be audited. I know this might get a little bit off topic but there was recent news that the bailout money Congress forked over to the banks was on a blank check, meaning that the banks could write whatever amount they pleased. New information has come up concerning the Fed that 9.7 trillion dollars has gone “missing”. Missing is certainly the operative and guarded way of describing it, don’t you think? I would like to express to you to help see that bill gets passed by contacting whoever necessary to vote for the bill. This is a process long in the making (after the Glass-Stiegel Act was repealed). The Fed has been around since 1913 and not until now have they been held accountable by us the American citizenry. To say “We’re not telling you because we don’t have to” is no longer a defense or excuse as to avoid criminal prosecution. On Friday, see to it that these people are served hard justice.