Hundred-Fiddy Billion.

Oh my!

Uncle Sam has committed $150,000,000,000.01 to AIG. When I say Uncle Sam I mean every American Tax payer.
put very plainly by

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
Published: November 10, 2008
NY Times.

"At the heart of A.I.G.’s troubles are a type of derivative called credit-default swaps. They are essentially a kind of insurance that A.I.G. wrote on complex securities, known as collateralized debt obligations, sold in recent years to financial institutions. By issuing the swaps, A.I.G. was promising to pay these institutions — A.I.G.’s counterparties — if the debt securities defaulted.

A.I.G. wrote a large book of business on the thinking that such defaults were unlikely. As the economy has soured, though, some of the securities have weakened and shown signs of failure.

The insurance contracts have also proved crushingly expensive for A.I.G. because they included provisions requiring it to post collateral under certain circumstances, showing that it could afford to keep its promises."

Well, apparently AIG can really keep it promises now. It is just really ...
unfair that my rich Uncle Sam has to back the deal. There should be a fiduciary law about binds management to be personally financially liable for such losses. RICO act thing ... frequently, management gives out stock bonuses and incentives in addition to salaries to themselves for these "profits" that happen in one quarter and turn out to be a big loss a couple of quarters later, but by then that commission voucher has been paid and spent a long time ago.

Drive the stock up with artificial reports of success, sell your "bonuses" as the price goes up. You know the game.

Update
03/16/09

Just when you thought OK ...You MF'er's one hundred fifty (F#ck F#ck F#ck) Billion Dollars... that would take care of the mess. NOOOOOOO!!! These people believe they are entitled to bonuses to the tune of almost $200 million dollars and they are contractually guaranteed blah blah blah and the checks are going to be signed and sent soon or if it has not already been put in the mail.

I'll say it again. Let this firm fail. Just for the principle of it. Government can come in after the collapse and operate the salvage and disposal mission.

Update 03/25/09

Oh man, let me get a towel and wipe this spit off me. You better a towel too cause this was in the WSJ... you know how i roll.

"Wednesday, EMPLOYEES (or should it say OUR employees?)at the insurer (GAVE A STANDING OVATION) for Jake DeSantis, an executive in AIG's financial-products division, who was the first to publicly refuse to return his retention bonus despite an outcry over the payments."

you wanna know what this (add your own adjective) said..."Mr. DeSantis said he would donate his after-tax proceeds of $742,000 to charity."

oh and of course...

"Mr. DeSantis resigned Tuesday(3/24/09), arguing in a New York Times op-ed piece Wednesday that AIG employees are being "unfairly persecuted.""

Mr. DeSantis what did AIG retain in that bonus that you received by quitting? Is this a unearned bonus? Oh and the part about giving to charity...What?... Yeah. and OJ looked for the real killers. You want to spit on me again and use your (US Taxpayer) contribution to off-set your taxes right?

Add another name to the wall of shame. DeSantis, Milken, Boski, Lay, Madoff, Baker, this list will go on and on... you get my drift?