"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast"
-Oscar Wilde		 Brilliant at Breakfast title banner "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself."
-- Proverbs 11:25
"...you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?" -- Steve Gilliard, 1964 - 2007

"For straight up monster-stomping goodness, nothing makes smoke shoot out my ears like Brilliant@Breakfast" -- Tata

"...the best bleacher bum since Pete Axthelm" -- Randy K.

"I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." -- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (1954-2015), They Live
Thursday, October 09, 2008

Throw a party, get a government bailout
Posted by Jill | 6:13 AM
I kind of understand why the original bailout of AIG may have been necessary to prevent a global economic collapse (though whether it actually prevented anything remains to be seen. But I simply do not understand why AIG is being rewarded with another $37 billion of taxpayer money because it has "dwindling cash reserves"...
The Federal Reserve Board said Wednesday that it would provide up to $37.8 billion to the embattled insurer the American International Group to help it deal with a rapidly dwindling supply of cash.

The additional assistance is on top of $85 billion in a bridge loan that the Federal Reserve extended to A.I.G. in September, but it will take a different form. A spokesman for A.I.G., Nicholas Ashooh, said the new assistance was intended to keep the company from having to draw down the Fed loan so quickly.


...when it has enough money to throw a big party for its top salespeople:
Here's the tab: $139,375.30 for rooms. $147, 301.71 for "banquets." $1,488 for the Vogue Salon, which features manicures, pedicures and hairstyling. $6,939.09 on golf. $2,949 for tips. $5,016.32 at the Stonehill Tavern. $3,064.71 for in-room dining and the lobby lounge. That's part of the $440,000 bill from a recent weekend bash that an American International Group Inc. subsidiary threw for its top performers at the posh St. Regis resort, on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Sounds like they had fun.

Their timing was exquisite. The AIG folks and their guests hit the spa just days after the insurance behemoth grabbed an $85 billion bailout package from U.S. taxpayers. They needed it because AIG piled up net losses of $18.5 billion in the past three quarters on write-downs tied to the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

Wheeee! Party on!

Some of the attendees lolled in the 3,100-square-foot presidential suite ($1,600 a night) while the company started to draw down thetaxpayers'billions. The company has already used at least $61 billion of the $85 billion loan, and the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it has engineered even more help for the company.


Outgoing CEO Robert Willumstad said at a House committee hearing on Tuesday that he didn't know about the conference and would have "prevented it." At least Willumstad has the decency to turn down his agreed-on $22 million severance package (or that's what's being reported). It will be interesting to see if any under-the-table payments are given. Funny how corporate executive suites are the only place where ignorance is regarded as a legitimate excuse.

Labels: ,

2 comments
Bookmark and Share
2 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Oh, no, it wasn't a party-it was stimulating the economy and promoting jobs! You know, all those great careers us little people dream of, like bellhop, pool attendant,cleaning staff. As far as I've seen that has been most of the job creation under the Repubs-turning this country into their serfs.ENOUGH!
10/9/08, 9:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
A good chuck of Mr. Willumstad's severance package would have been stock options... clearly they would have to give him a very larger amount of stock when the per share price is under $5 or $10 than when AIG was trading at closer to $100. So he really isn't loosing anything by not taking almost worthless stock; he's probably gotten a lot of stock on other occasions that he now has to really hold a long time before the price recovers (if it ever does). (I don't feel sorry for him at all; he may have come in to AIG to solve the problems created by the way Maurice Greenberg was made to leave the company, but Mr. Willumstad probably got a good signing bonus at the time.)
PurpleGirl
10/9/08, 9:57 AM  
Post a Comment
<< Home