the rich will always be rich

americans are going ballistic at the latest round of AIG bonuses -- $165 million contractually due to execs in the financial products division. yup, the same guys that broke the world. (that the total pay-out for 2008 and 2009 is actually $450 million seems to be getting lost in the blather) while some krazees are defending them as a necessary means of retention, ya know, keeping the really good guys on board (are psych evaluations part of this bail-out plan? cuz that's fruitcake nutso to say in your outside voice), bottom line is it's on paper. it's a legal obligation. that there seemed to be no performance standard required to receive a staggering bonus is something for another time when we visit opposite-land. the president, the treasury secretary and even andrew cuomo are all going brimstone and "up with this we will not put", but they're kinda stuck. it's like this plan was drafted on a cocktail napkin after too many gibsons in a final fuck-you gesture by the previous administration. that whole "let the market regulate itself" worked out so well, it made perfect sense to give all these recipients carte blanche, right? just push mountains of untethered money at them and it will all work out perfectly. (or maybe they had just watched that "dallas" episode where bobby wakes up in the shower and the whole season had just been a dream?)

rep. elijah cummings of maryland, a member of the house committee on government oversight, said he had been communicating regularly with AIG’s chief executive, edward m. liddy, about the bonuses ever since december. mr. cummings said he was particularly concerned that the bonuses were supposed to be paid by march 15, adding that he assumed treasury officials had the same worries.

from today's ny times:

“i assumed that they were well aware of it and would take appropriate action” before the march 15 deadline. “in light of the biggest quarterly loss in history, you would think that AIG and mr. liddy would have been able to convince folks who were supposed to be getting these retention payments, based at least in part on performance, that they might want to voluntarily not take all or part of them.” i almost spat my tea reading this. guys with history's most bloated sense of entitled hubris, working under a bail-out plan that required zero transparency and even less accountability, are supposed to suddenly do the right thing? instead of taking the money and running? on what planet does cummings live? "aw, shucks, c'mon guys. make nice? once ? please? with a cherry on top?" except the cherry is the no-strings-attached gajillion dollar pay-out and a soon-to-be life of leisure on a tropical island or swiss chalet for these execs.

yesterday iowa senator charles grassley suggested in a radio interview that AIG executives "come before the american people and take that deep bow and say, i'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide." now some pundits are pointing at grassley and shaking their heads over such crazy-talk from the cornfields. republicans aren't exactly known for their comic delivery and the seppuku bit is over the top only because it was reserved for samurais who had tainted their code of honor. the whores at AIG and their money bros had none, so certainly don't deserve the glory of falling on their own swords. i do seem to recall a couple of european financiers committing suicide last year when the edges began to fray, but i can't think of a single failed american ceo who has stepped down out of this whole mess. the big 3 in detroit and the money houses still standing all are still run by the same white guys who ran them into the ground, and our economy and future right along with -- as gm goes, so goes the country, eh?

as this debacle continues to spiral, i don't know who should be more ashamed. i do know that nobody involved in any of this -- nobody-- seems to have a sense of contrition. it's being played as an "oops" instead of a melt-down.

and the guys with the money? they still have it. they hire sheryl crow for parties (northern trust got $1.6 billion) and commute on private jets (ceo of bank of america --$45 billion). at the christie's auction of yves st. laurent's estate a hand-made chair from the early 20th century sold for about $28 million -- 10 times its pre-show value. one chair.

"he who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year. " ~~ leonardo davinci

not.