By GottaLaff
Jon Stewart, wondering aloud why even more bonuses are being handed out:
"Hand out over 5 billion dollars in bonuses to their 'fraud division'?!"
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| These F@#king Guys - Goldman Sachs | ||||
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Stewart, Colbert to Stay Through 2012 Election
By GottaLaff
Bowing to intense public pressure, Goldman Sachs on Thursday scaled back plans to distribute at least $16 billion in year-end bonuses, stripping cash awards from members of its 30-person management committee in favor of restricted stock.Why do I always feel a "but" coming on when it involves G.S.?Those executives will be unable to sell the "at-risk" stock for five years and could be forced to relinquish it if they engage in improper risk analysis or fail to "sufficiently raise concerns about risks," the company said. Bonuses, which are based on the firm's overall performance, represent the bulk of compensation to members of the committee of global divisional and regional leaders.
Goldman didn't say that it would alter bonuses for most of the more than 31,000 employees on its payroll. The employees were poised to receive an average of about $700,000 in bonus payments.And Paddy has no heat.
By GottaLaff
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
By GottaLaff
American International Group is preparing to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to several dozen top corporate executives after an earlier round of payments four months ago set off a national furor.The troubled insurance giant has been pressing the federal government to bless the payments in hopes of shielding itself from renewed public outrage.
The request puts the administration's new compensation czar on the spot by seeking his opinion about bonuses that were promised long before he took his post.
AIG doesn't actually need the permission of Kenneth R. Feinberg, who President Obama appointed last month to oversee the compensation of top executives at seven firms that have received large federal bailouts. But officials at AIG, whose federal rescue package stands at $180 billion, have been reluctant to move forward without political cover from the government. [...]
The payments coming due next week include $2.4 million in bonuses for about 40 high-ranking executives at AIG, according to administration documents from earlier this year. Though the actual sum may have changed since then, the payments are much smaller than those that caused the upheaval in March.
Still, officials at AIG and within the government see them as a land mine.
Gee, ya think?
I'm having vision issues tonight, so bear with me.
By GottaLaff
I'm copying and pasting the entire post from Think Progress, with many thanks to them for such good reporting...
Secretary Krugman has such a nice ring to it:
Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders that he did not learn of AIG’s plans to award $160 billion in retention bonuses to employees in its “troubled” financial products division until March 10. But as Time magazine reports today, the New York Federal Reserve “informed Treasury staff that the payments were imminent on February 28,” at least 10 days “before Treasury staffers say they first learned ‘full details’ of the bonus plan, and three days before the Administration launched a new $30 billion infusion of cash for AIG.” Time explains that “the fault [for the delay] appears to lie with career staffers at the department who failed to report the imminent bonus deadline up the chain to Geithner.”What creates a bigger black eye: Firing Geithner or keeping him on?
By GottaLaff
"We're pretty much done with credit default swaps. [...] We did not have transparency. We did not have a good contract."Update Tweet from the Washington Independent:
--AIG CEO Edward Liddy to House Financial Services subcommittee
Liddy Says Some AIG Employees Will Return Bonuses; Frank Threatens to Subpoena Names
By GottaLaff
President Obama is on the Tee Vee Machine as I type this. The Dow is up 129.
He just coughed, paused for a second, and said, "Excuse me. I'm choked up with anger here."
Trying to contain what became a political firestorm over the weekend, President Obama said his administration will "pursue every legal avenue" to block $165 million in bonuses to AIG executives, the AP reports.UPDATE: Exerpts of his speech here.
Said Obama: "This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed. Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"
By GottaLaff
A.I.G. is preparing to pay more than $100 million in bonuses to executives which brought the company to the brink of collapse.And why should something this personal be any of our business, again?
Without a Pastor of His Own, Obama Turns to Five: President Obama has been without a pastor or a home church ever since he cut his ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. in the heat of the presidential campaign. But he has quietly cultivated a handful of evangelical pastors for private prayer sessions on the telephone and for discussions on the role of religion in politics.
By GottaLaff
President Barack Obama's economic team tried to keep Democratic allies negotiating the stimulus bill from limiting paychecks for bank executives at banks in need of a bailout. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and economic aide Lawrence Summers failed.Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, inserted strict rules into the $787 billion economic stimulus package over the White House's objections. Dodd's limits on bankers' bonuses are significantly more aggressive those sought by Obama or Geithner in recent days, with much fanfare.
Dodd, D-Conn., said the restrictions - an executive making $1 million a year in salary could receive only $500,000 in bonus money, for example - are necessary if Obama plans asks Congress for more money to save the financial sector.
"It will never happen as long as the public perceives that there are people getting rich," Dodd said in an interview. "Save their pay or save capitalism."
That tone among Democrats flavored much of the discussion about how to write the stimulus bill, which the president could sign as early as Monday. Despite direct appeals from Geithner, Summers and White House officials, Democrats didn't budge, according to administration officials.
By GottaLaff
Get a load of this (and it is a load):
During an internal conference call last week, advisers were warned not to call the awards bonuses because it would cause a PR headache:“There will be a retention award. Please do not call it a bonus,” said James Gorman, co-president of Morgan Stanley. “It is not a bonus. It is an award. And it recognizes the importance of keeping our team in place as we go through this integration.”
Please do not call my middle finger a flip-off. It is not a flip-off. It is an expression of targeted passion.
By GottaLaff
At the risk of repeating myself... Change:
The Obama administration is expected to impose a cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive large amounts of bailout money, according to people familiar with the plan.President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will announce the executive compensation plan on Wednesday at 11 a.m.
Executives would also be prohibited from receiving any bonuses above their base pay, except for normal stock dividends.
The new rules would be far tougher than any restrictions imposed during the Bush administration, and they could force executives in the months ahead to accept deep reductions in their current pay. The proposed cap comes amid rising public fury about huge pay packages for executives at financial companies being propped up by federal tax dollars. [...]
Crucial details remained unclear on Tuesday night, including whether the restrictions would apply to all companies that receive money under the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, or whether they would apply only to the “exceptional” companies that were being rescued from collapse.
By GottaLaff
A few months ago, I was having a conversation in which I wondered aloud why the government couldn't cut outlandish bonuses, and/or temporarily and/or partially limit incomes of those greedy Big Biz types, given the dire state of the economy. I was sternly admonished, including being told that such a thing would be impossible.
I hung my head in shame and shuffled off to my room without supper. After all, as I've mentioned here previously, I admit to being woefully inept when it comes to discussing most things economic. So off I went, feeling like a fool.... until:
A day after President Barack Obama bashed bailed-out banks for giving huge bonuses, Sen. Claire McCaskill, (D-Mo.) proposed capping salaries for employees at companies accepting government funds.Thank you, Chris and Claire. I have been vindicated.
“We must have our financial institutions survive but not with a culture that thinks it’s all right to kick the taxpayer in the shins,” she said in a Senate floor speech.
McCaskill introduced legislation that would forbid employees at firms collecting government funds from collecting more than the $400,000 salary made by the president of the United States, until the company no longer relies on money from the $700 billion government rescue fund. The cap would include not only salary but also bonuses and stock options.
“If any of them think it is a hardship to take the salary of the president of the United States, I dare them to say it out loud right now,” McCaskill said. [...]
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said he plans to “get back” billions of dollars worth of bonuses being paid out by financial services companies.
"I'm going to be urging — in fact, not urging but demanding — that the Treasury Department figure out some way to get this back," Dodd told reporters Thursday. "This is unacceptable.”
By GottaLaff
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
"It is shameful.... Show some restraint, show some discipline, show some sense of responsibility."
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