Only the Strong Should Survive
AIG may need more government support to meet upcoming obligations. Are you kidding me?! I say see ya!! They should have thought about that after they borrowed money from the Fed the first time around and then paid huge bonuses to their top leadership.
When AIG first went to the “well” for money from the federal goverment, the Associated Press reported that the Obama administration’s pay czar, Kenneth Fienberg, said bonus payments totaling $100 million to AIG employees from the same unit that prompted a massive taxpayer bailout are “outrageous” but they were allowed under the law. He said the retention bonuses were contractual obligations agreed upon years ago, before American International Group Inc. received a $180 billion federal rescue at the height of the financial crisis in late 2008. In an interview on ABC, Feinberg said, “These are the old grandfathered payments. I do not for a minute ignore the outrage out there, which I share. But the fact of the matter is we’ve got to abide by the law.” Feinberg said he’s working to get back as much of the bonus money as possible. He said AIG employees have agreed to repay $39 million out of $45 million in previous bonuses to the U.S. Treasury.
Well now it’s too late to ask. If AIG employees got a bonus and the company still can’t get on their feet it’s time to eliminate the problem, just like everyone else and every other business in the world.
How about all the small businesses out there that are also having tough times. For the last year these small businesses have been eliminating overhead and cutting costs across the board, most small business owners tht are struggling have stopped paying their own paychecks in order to keep as many of their most loyal employees still on the books. No government support is in sight for them. Worse yet, it takes months and sometimes years to eliminate some of the most weighing liabilities only to wait even longer before the cash flow catches up.
As far as I am concerned, AIG had their chance. Yes, we will suffer for the downfall of AIG but it will get better and in the end we will be better. But we will have make some difficult decisions first. AIG is not the only insurance company out there. AIG has enough subsidiaries, and they can do what we all do, focus on the ones that are profitable and cut the ones that aren’t and that means if you can’t sell it — close it.
