meanwhile, AIG still knows how to spend money

[AthleticsInBritain]

Hmmmm, I think it's time for the peasants to break out the pitchforks and burning torches myself.

[jhc68]

We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore!!!!

Of course the feverish atmosphere contributes to theater of the absurd. Where I live the city workers just got a 4% raise, followed immediately by an announcement that they would all be obliged to take an unpaid furlough amounting to 5% of their annual pay. (Say what?)

This prompted the local union thumpers to proclaim that city workers are just like AIG suits in terms of stealing taxpayer money and that unions are driving the nation to bankruptcy -even though the city workers will take a net 1% pay cut. It's an odd world.

[gh]

These corporate hacks just don't get it, do they? Citigroup talking about a $10M office remodel?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... LGVE_YzvUU

[Daisy]

They're just asking for arson. Are they nuts?

[AthleticsInBritain]

Well, you know how it is. When someone gives you a load of money or your credit card limit goes up another thou, sometimes you just feel like going to the mall and splashing the cash!

[deca-pat]

Well, you know how it is. When someone gives you a load of money or your credit card limit goes up another thou, sometimes you just feel like going to the mall and splashing the cash!

Athletics, what has been your thoughts on EU Parliament member Daniel Hannan?

[AthleticsInBritain]

Well, you know how it is. When someone gives you a load of money or your credit card limit goes up another thou, sometimes you just feel like going to the mall and splashing the cash!

Athletics, what has been your thoughts on EU Parliament member Daniel Hannan?

I just watched his speech (which can be found on YouTube) and it's well worth watching. Although my politics aren't the same as his I find it very hard to disagree with what he says. I'd not seen the video, so thanks for inspiring me to look it up. My only criticism is that he was too polite! You should hear what Jeremy Clarkson called Gordon Brown ...

The backlash against the banking world's fat cats has started and it's getting quite ugly here. There's been huge criticism of Sir Fred Goodwin, former CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland, a recipient of £20 bilion of public money in bailout funds. He's been vilified for getting a pension worth £700,000 per year. Not as much as you'd get on Wall St but people were very angry about it. Anyway, his home's been vandalised:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edi ... 962825.stm

Some windows smashed and his car damaged but no one hurt. There's a lot of people that resent him for being so well rewarded when the bank he was in charge of is one of the main reasons for the economy tanking like it has.

[tandfman]

A view from the other side of things:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opini ... antis.html

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. . . .

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

[Pego]

A view from the other side of things:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opini ... antis.html

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. . . .

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

I read the entire article and he just does not get it.

1. I wonder, if he were quite so cavalier giving the money away without the public outcry.

2. The medical multispecialty group I worked for majority of my professional life had many specialties with different levels of productivity. The reimbursement system varied accordingly. Neurosurgeons and orthopods kept a lesser percentage of their productivity than say, the pediatricians. In good times, everybody retained more, in bad times less, with the same proportion. Now, if we went bankrupt and the government would come to our rescue, would those neurosurgeons claim that they still produced, while the pediatricians caused the slide, so they should still get their reward, while those pediatricians go to pasture? Rather absurd concept and that is exactly what DeSantis defends. His company went belly-up, for crying out loud. Whether he caused it or not is immaterial.

3. Sniffling about his humble origin and years of hard work, geez. How many people can say that, making a fraction of what he did. I am sure, he is not standing in a soup kitchen line.

[jhc68]

It seems ironic that De Santis (presumably a free market kind of guy) complains about being betrayed by his employer (who, by all free market logic, should have gone belly up months ago) and by the government (since taxpayers have subsidized De Santis presumably large salary during that time).
His reaction seems childish and irrational - if he feels he deserves the jumbo bonus then he ought to keep it and stay at his job. The guy doesn't appear to grasp the situation he is in and has adopted the mentality of a spoiled kid on the playground throwing a tizzy fit: he's going to take his ball and go home and not come back anymore. That'll show 'em all !
So he quits a failed company. Does he expect wide public sympathy for playing the victim? Me, I'd be interested to see his donation of the bonus money documented. Think he will wait to see if the punitive tax laws aimed at him pass?

[guru]

Man, I hate it when I'm right.

AIG shows $1.8 billion profit in latest quarter(first black numbers since '07), stock up 65% on the year.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32328138/ns ... -earnings/

[guru]

I really couldn't care less. The Fed makes Libor plus 850(currently around 10%), and if AIG cant pay the loans back by 2010, or they go into default, then their divisions get broken up and sold off, making a tidy profit for the government.

i don't see how on earth you can keep waffling on with this drivel

it doesn't make a shitload of difference whether fed asks for libor + 10,000, they ain't getting a red cent back !

Fed made $45 Billion in 2009.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... %3Dtopnews

[cullman]

There is potentially more trouble ahead. From the same article:

'While that resulted in higher earnings in 2009, it exposes the Fed to more risks down the road. "They've moved up the risk-return curve, as they have more long-term assets and more things that involve credit risk," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.'

cman

[gh]

column in my paper this morning says Goldman Sachs is about to hand out c43% of its '09 revenues of $44B in bonuses (average of $595,000 per employee).

[guru]

column in my paper this morning says Goldman Sachs is about to hand out c43% of its '09 revenues of $44B in bonuses (average of $595,000 per employee).

For the record, Goldman Sachs repaid it's TARP loan of $10 Billion in June, netting the Fed $1.42 Billion in interest.

http://bailout.propublica.org/entities/ ... dman-sachs

[gh]

Meaning that they've successfully bought their way out of any corporate responsibility and they and their cronies are now free to lead the economy down the garden path again?

[guru]

Meaning that they've successfully bought their way out of any corporate responsibility and they and their cronies are now free to lead the economy down the garden path again?

They personally paid you and me $1,418,055,555, and they and their cronies together have paid you and me $45 billion last year alone, for their trouble.

If they're that stupid again I'm happy to take more of their money.

[Conor Dary]

Meaning that they've successfully bought their way out of any corporate responsibility and they and their cronies are now free to lead the economy down the garden path again?

Hey, it is not over yet. Commercial real estate is the next zombie.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0 ... struction/

Our banker friends still have a lot of explaining to do.

"Could you explain how Goldman bet against these C.D.O.’s while simultaneously trying to persuade ratings agencies and investors that they were good investments? Were they designed from the outset to be shorted by Goldman and possibly select clients? And were those clients involved in helping design these transactions? What explicit disclosures did you make to Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s about your plans to short these instruments? And should we continue to allow transactions in which you’re betting against what you’re also selling?"



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/busin ... n.html?dbk

[gh]

If you want more Sorkin (and "no rules of accountability"), go here for a 7-minute clip of him with Jon Stewart (in generally serious mode, which he can do very well)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-d ... oss-sorkin

[7-sided]

Meaning that they've successfully bought their way out of any corporate responsibility and they and their cronies are now free to lead the economy down the garden path again?

They personally paid you and me $1,418,055,555, and they and their cronies together have paid you and me $45 billion last year alone, for their trouble.

If they're that stupid again I'm happy to take more of their money.

With the taxpayer as a guarantee backstop on their bad bets that still exist; they've paid it back, but the losses have been socialized.

[cullman]

...and in the other corner is China's real estate bubble which could have catastrophic consequences when it bursts.

Now, I'm just a poor young retired schlep who has a few beers with a financial mathematician and a senior trader or two. These guys have been a lot of fun to drink with for the last ten years because they have great stories and a detached, almost perverse view of the money markets.

A couple of hot topics over the holidays were Non Farm Payroll numbers. They are being noticed by Wall Street this month for the first time since the "happy capitalists" took over the market. Whoodathunk that actual numbers of jobs are now back down to 2000 levels while the population has increased. We've had a steady increase in jobs during some pretty stinky economic times but I believe this is the first decade since before WWII where actual jobs haven't increased in America. Jobless recovery? Is that an oxymoron?

My buddies also mention that the same environment that created this last meltdown still exist in exactly the same form. Wall Street investment banking is still heavily leveraged and unregulated which means they continue to make a bushel basket full of money on those 20 lb bags of banker manure (the worst kind...it's toxic!) that are somehow quasi legally converted into AAA rated investments. Who is buying this stuff? Doesn't matter...Goldman Sachs et al are making massive amounts on transaction fees...but I digress.

cman

[guru]

These corporate hacks just don't get it, do they? Citigroup talking about a $10M office remodel?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... LGVE_YzvUU

Fed preparing to sell stake in Citigroup. Profit to you and me at today's stock price - $8 Billion.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36062775/ns ... gton_post/

[gh]

Not clear on what "our" making money has to do with the fact that they're terminally stone deaf. Meanwhile, this I found today:

<<Well into the crisis period, when banks such as Citigroup were operating on federal investment and when Citi's stock was in single digits, Vikram Pandit, the CEO, was observed with a lunch guest at Le Bernardin, one of the top-rated restaurants in New York.

Pandit looked discerningly at the wine list, saw nothing by the glass that appealed, and ordered a $350 bottle so that, as he explained, he could savor "a glass of wine worth drinking."

Pandit drank just one glass; his friend had none.

-- Excerpted from 'The End of Wall Street'>>

[Conor Dary]

Nice to see one of the instigators of the economic meltdown getting their rightful blame.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/busin ... an.html?hp

[Gebrucilassie]

the absolute worst thing that could have happened" would have been for employees and underwriters in its life insurance subsidiary to flee the company.

Who said anything about fleeing the company? All the CEO had to do was send out a message to everyone saying that this retreat comes at a bad time for the public's perception (credibility being everything in business), so it will be postponed until such time as the company is on firmer ground. In the meantime he goes about an extensive internal Damage Control program. This is just common sense, and to say otherwise is to buy into their rationalizations. The very fact that AIG is being seen in such a poor light is proof that it was a bad idea - if ONLY for the perception generated! All the points tandfman made were valid . . . but not prudent at this time.

Obviously, you don't work in the private sector, nor are you displaying any common sense at all. Any CEO who would make a dumbass statement like that would be telegraphing to his most productive people the ship had suck and they'd better flee. The insurance business is a relationship business. top producers can and will take their clients elsewhere.

I often hear this argument. That the salesman, CEO, fill in the blank position, will leave if they don't get a bonus they feel they deserve. Often this is despite the fact that the government has had to bail them out because of poor choices and lack of good management. The question that always comes to mind is- where are they going to leave to? Are there that many companies hiring for these positions. Perhaps the government shouldn't reward these companies for doing such a poor job.

[lonewolf]

[ the government shouldn't reward these companies for doing such a poor job.

Amen!! .. where are the losers going and what is the loss if they do?

[guru]

Fed sells stake in Citigroup, realizing $12 billion profit.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10939787 ... ition.html

[Daisy]

I've said this before - the US government is makiing a killing on the AIG "bailout" - 10% interest on the loan amount, fully repayable in 3 years. In no way, shape, or form are they receiving a gift. Should AIG fail, which is highly unlikely considering their diversification, the government will easily make a profit by breaking it up and selling off the high-performing divisions.

$15.1 billion, so far.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/ ... -stock/?hp

[Daisy]

Wow, who saw this coming?

The board of A.I.G. will meet on Wednesday to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government, court records show. The lawsuit does not argue that government help was not needed. It contends that the onerous nature of the rescue — the taking of what became a 92 percent stake in the company, the deal’s high interest rates and the funneling of billions to the insurer’s Wall Street clients — deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the taking of private property for “public use, without just compensation.”

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/ ... its-savior

[gh]

<<JANUARY 8, 2013
A LETTER FROM A.I.G.
POSTED BY ANDY BOROWITZ


NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – Today, American International Group (A.I.G.) issued the following letter to American taxpayers.

Dear American Taxpayers:

In 2008, you paid for a bailout of A.I.G. totalling $182 billion. Today, we are writing to tell you that we’re thinking of suing you.

When we made this decision, we knew we were in for some rough treatment from the media. We’ve been called everything from soulless bloodsuckers to Satan’s scabrous handmaidens, and worse. At A.I.G., though, we have a different name for ourselves: true American heroes....>>



Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/b ... z2HQXLfn2D

[Master Po]

<<JANUARY 8, 2013
A LETTER FROM A.I.G.
POSTED BY ANDY BOROWITZ


NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – Today, American International Group (A.I.G.) issued the following letter to American taxpayers.

Dear American Taxpayers:

In 2008, you paid for a bailout of A.I.G. totalling $182 billion. Today, we are writing to tell you that we’re thinking of suing you.

When we made this decision, we knew we were in for some rough treatment from the media. We’ve been called everything from soulless bloodsuckers to Satan’s scabrous handmaidens, and worse. At A.I.G., though, we have a different name for ourselves: true American heroes....>>



Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/b ... z2HQXLfn2D

Indeed. I believe I've seen several times in the past couple of weeks an AIG commercial on the teevee, wherein the narrator/spokesperson recounts AIG's awesome record in recent years, all punctuated by a series of people saying, "Thank you, America" or something like that. But perhaps I wasn't watching closely enough...perhaps they were saying, "F**k you, America." Oh well, it's just another instance in which I am, somehow, at once (a) not surprised at all, and (b) appalled.

[gh]

on Wednesday night, Jon Stewart had two awesome (IMHO) 4-minute bits.

First is one on HSBC ("to big to prosecute")

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-j ... ers---hsbc

that segues into his AIG bit

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-j ... erds---aig