GOP Senator: AIG Execs Should Follow Japanese Model -- Suicide or Apology

The thing here if it wasn't for the government using our money to bail these idiots out they wouldn't have a job to begin with, now they are claiming they deserve a bonus for being incompetent. I guess we should have just let the GREEDY BASTARDS go down with the ship we would have been better off. It is totally unfair that there are people all over this country just trying to survive, loosing their jobs, homes and life savings and these asshol*es take this money that in my thoughts have stolen from the taxpayers of this country. If Obama lets this happen his popularity will diminish pretty fast and the American people will loose more faith in this country that is already faced with investors running scared. Wake Up People!

It may be nothing you can fix, Mr. Jake Tapper, but after finding this article on a Google search and glancing over it, I associated your face with the statements for several days before searching for the article again and re-reading it. It's my fault for not reading absolutely every paragraph on the site, but for future reference, readers who are not familiar with you or your work may experience similar problems! Just for your reference.

Exec salaries are out of control but I dont think they are at GE, suggest reading the annual reports and proxy's for the 30 stocks that make up the Dow and when you compare, look at # of employee's, revenues, assets etc. There is a solution though, we simply legislate that an execs package is made up of 60-70% equity in the business and the rest is cash, so if you are on a salary of $1m, $300k is cash $700k is stock, if you do well and get say a $1m bonus, $700k is stock the rest cash, you can never sell why you are in your position and when you leave you cant sell for 2-3 years. We have a company here in Oz that the top dog paid himself $16.5m in 2008, 80% cash, this is a company that has 37k employee's, has $6.6b in assets, Revenues of $10b, profit of $600k - he holds, wait for it, a measly 126k shares (about $2m worth of equity) in the company and as we speak is selling them, if we have a model where he has to purchase 70% stock as part of his remuneration then in the last 2 years, he was paid $30m, he would have $21m in stock, now thats something worth fighting for, but given that its all cash in the bank, hey who gives a rats, I've got my money now, so my reputation is tarnished for a little while, big deal, people forget!!! Now look at GE, Jeff Immelt runs a company that has 300k employee's, Revenues of $182b, profit of $18b, Assets of $797b - he paid himself $3.3m in cash and $6m in shares (not worth that now though) - he also holds 6million shares in GE, so he has really felt the pain of this collapse - So when you're picking stocks, use your usual financial methods, but if your going to trust a company with your hard earned look at the above numbers and see if management really has an interest in their company.

Suicide is Painless!

Check Grassley has spoken his mind -- he may be a bit rough, but he has spoken the minds of many people who are upset.

Maybe the coments weren't p.c. but maybe the time for being such is over. Let them commit to something they may actually be able to make the public happy about. Clean house, get them out and start over. Tax 100%? Won't work. Too many loopholes. Maybe we could put a judgement on their wives jewlery. I'm really angry about all of this! I'm not republican but I think I could vote for this guy whose time may have come.

Hmm... A republican that doesn't make me want to vomit with rage. Will wonders never cease? Ah, he must be one of those old skool ones that don't like pork barrel projects and want small government.

There is one thing that has screwed this up and thats these turkeys (CEOs) dont own their company so of course they take absurd risks. We need to legislate into the western world that if you take a position on a public company then you have to really own it, so if you take on a board position, non-exec or exec then you take a stake and a big stake based on your position of course - for example, if you are offered a salary of $5m, $2m is cash $3m is stock, you can never sell while in office and must hold 2-3 years after leaving, you'll still take risk but not the completed screwed up decisions that these morons made (I say morons, but really they are probably the smart ones, the only ones on the planet walking around with a @#@# loads of cash) - America spread the word, tell congress, tell Obama - You want to rule then own it first!!!

Please give Obama a break.

Ask yourself this, if Lehman Brothers aren't allow to fail or Bear Stern got the bailout. I can assure you AIG will not be in current situation.

A lot of current banks failed or in dire situation because they are like dominoes insuring each other. That is why AIG pay the foreign banks.

A lot of you, Republican supporters believes those banks should fail. But most company (probably the one you work in) needs those bank to do business. Everytime they pay your salary, part of those money actually comes from bank. Company's creditors do hold up your actual $$ for at least 30days. And in most places, it can go as high as 1 year.

For Obama, he needs to make sure banking system are working properly. Thus, the bailout is inevitable.

If you don't agree with me (Republican supporters?), ask yourself this 2 questions:
1. Under which administration you voted that grounded USA economies?
2. Back in November, of the only 2 choices, who would have done better today: McCain (& Palin) or Obama (& Biden)?

No wonder, almost 3 billion non-USA people always joke Americans aren't that bright when it comes to leader selections.

No Bob, we do NOT all share the blame for this mess. Don't so easliy lump us all into this responsibility.

AIG was operating within the law, otherwise there would have been congressional investations till the cows came home.

Obama and the unDemocrats decided AIG was too big to fail, and took it upon themselves to offer cash to a struggling insurange giant.

The mess became THEIRS when they assumed RESPONSIBILITY. They have spent our money (did they ask permission??) in ways we haven't dreamed, and thanks to the G-Gang, we'll likely never see it again.

"what we need in Washington are good ideas"...BHO

That's what you were elected for, you *******

Treason -- Are you kidding?

I think these people were irresponsible too. But who made them that way? The investors! Investment stratagies became short term because every idiot with a computer could make his own trades. Intellegent investing based on the long term potential of a company has been forgotten. Every time a company has a bad quarter, the stock drops, and management heads roll (courtesy of boards and shareholders). This forced them to think very short term, including making very risky deals just to prop up the bottom line on a quarter by quarter basis. And it worked for a long time and the shareholders were fat and happy. Sure, the desire for big bonuses played a large role, but so did the desire to keep their jobs. You can see this a bit more clearly when you look at non-financial companies where the bonuses are not so ridiculous. They too suffer from the short-sighted shareholder problem. We all share the blame for this mess! By the way, I am not an executive and dont get paid with bonuses, just someone who knows how to see both sides of the issue.

Bob, absolutely no one should be agreeing with Sen. Grassley on this.

Everyone should be calling for his immediate RESIGNATION.

I asked before, but no one answered: Who voted for this guy anyway??

What we have is an elected official ('of the people, by the people, for the people') attacking private individuals whom names I'm sure he knows, to such an extent as to CALL FOR THEIR DEATH.

That's the problem, Bob, that EVERYONE should be acutely aware of.

Following the sentator's logic, will he, or some other law-maker next suggest we ought have a law requiring the DEATH of persons they deem to have mis-spent their PRIVATE monies in ways GOVERNMENT doesn't APPROVE OF?

It's a SMOKE SCREEN for the real ATROCITIES in our government. Remember that King B.O. himself said not to worry about the $8 BILLION in EARMARKS... he said they're a drop in the $800 BILLION bill. And yet a corporation honoring their contracts for a measly $135 million is somehow a CAPITAL OFFENSE?

You know, the goverment has given you money back on your taxes Bob.... Maybe it's time we all examine YOUR checkbook. How have YOU been spending your (really the GOVERNMENT'S) money. Leave it to a slimy politician to find a crime in there somewhere. . .

The real question we should all be asking is:
IS AIG HIRING?

He has a point. These people nearly took down the US financial system through their greed and short-sightedness. At a minimum we should claw-back their bonuses, but I'd prefer to see them indicted for treason (and not just AIG either). I don't buy for one minute that this was just a big surprise to everyone. They knew the risks and took them anyway. If a company cannot honor it's contracts with it's clients, execs should have no reasonable expectation of bonuses, taxpayer funded or otherwise.

Bob -- perhaps i jumped on you too quickly, but lookig down the posts i see several people who seem appalled in totality by these comments.. and I find it funny that conservatives have been watching far worse said of Bush and far worse said by democrats for years with their statements going completly unchallenged..

Arkie -- I disapprove of what Grassley said, not of his party affiliation. My opinion of his comments would be the same whether he was R, D, I, G or any other party affiliation. All those with the power to reach millions of people must actually think about the impact of their words.
BTW, I dont agree with the comment you reference by Reid either, but that is (was) not the topic of this particular blog post.

Never thought I'd agree with Mr. Grassley on anything, but I like his point of view on this issue. Time to be honorable (for once)and fall on your swords, losers...

kevia1124-"Have any of you complainer's heared anything from your MR Bush since he left office? I didn't think so, and also why didn't you complain when Mr Bush was running this country in the ground.......not a peep out of you, so now you got all this to complain about with Mr Obama.Least we forget he STEP INTO THIS MESS."-- WOW.. Umm i am pretty sure that ANY president whose term is over is no longer involved in running the country... and exactly how did he run it into the ground... 6 years of low unemployment ..even after 9/11. Not exactly what i call running it into the ground... and yes Obama did step into this mess.. but it was caused by people in his own party, not the president...

katthe real one--"But of course, Grassley, as a GOP spokesperson, wouldn't bring up the deregulation issues that caused it."-- I agree with you and so do alot of other republicans.. we think the deregulation issues should be shouted from the roof tops so everyone will know the truth.. that the deregulation "mess" was created by, nurtured by, propogated by, and defended by DEMOCRATS...

silky--"Please. I despise most of the Republicans on the hill and even I think that's ridiculous"-- SILKY !!!
There's hope for you yet...