AIG to Pay $450 Million in Bonuses
 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123707854113331281.html

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...701E15D9A59%7D

:eek:awesome place to work

Why are you shocked?


In the US, it's eaiser to get people to come out to a Top Model competition, than it is to get them to protest being robbed blind by the government.

Lol Jason is there a thread on VOT where you didn't make an appearance

haha should not be surprised man

you run one of the largest insurance company in US and 450million bonus is chump change. the AIG employee is the firm's best asset now they gonna want to do everything to keep people coming back every morning.

you may want to read it carefully

close to an average 90,000usd per person bonus will be paid out!

forget who was responsible for the mistakes, those who fucked up will be held accountable once this recession cools down. but now its about how to wind down AIG's business without creating further volatilities in the market and how do you do that without some motivated ($$$) AIG employees.

great.....

its not my money, so i dont care!


yay

You guys are looking at this from a victim mentality. I'm thinking I need to get a job there.

I think I heard on the news last night, Liddy is supposed to appear before the Senate and explain himself this week sometime. Looks like the Senate is keeping busy, first steroids and now finance.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/0...ss/aig_outrage
http://www.canada.com/business/fp/story.html?id=1394948

Obama tries to stop AIG bonuses: 'How do they justify this outrage?'
 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama said Monday he will attempt to block bonuses to executives at ailing insurance giant AIG, payments he described as an "outrage." "This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and $$$$$," Obama told politicians and reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where he and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner were unveiling a package to aid the nation's small businesses.

The president expressed dismay and anger over the bonuses to executives at AIG, which has received $173 billion in U.S. government bailouts over the past six months.

"Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/...ses/index.html

cockblockbama

good job obama, hope he blocks that shit

that's y u have to let screwed up companies die, free up the resouirces and let someone else take over. This is the way nature worked or millions of years & it proves to be very effective.

Another thing they're supposedly trying to do is tax the bonuses by 70% from what I heard on the news today. That still gives them a HUGE amount of bonues. Sad sad.

I like this senators comments. Choose resignation or suicide. If not, I hope they do go ahead and tax them more then 90%.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/09031...public_aid_aig

Where's Ron Paul when you need him..

Bill taxing AIG bonuses passes
 

WASHINGTON — Acting swiftly, the Democratic-led House approved a bill Thursday to slap punishing taxes on big employee bonuses at firms bailed out by taxpayers.

The bill would impose a 90 per cent tax on bonuses given to employees with family incomes above $250,000 (U.S.) at American International Group and other companies that have received at least $5-billion in government bailout money.

“We want our money back now for the taxpayers,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

Democrats led the charge in an attempt to get in front of raging public anger over the AIG bonuses, even though a provision that would have made such payouts illegal was stripped from last month's $787-billion stimulus bill by its Democratic sponsors.
The vote to tax back most of the bonuses was 328-93. Voting “yes” were 243 Democrats and 85 Republicans. It was opposed by six Democrats and 87 Republicans.

The bonuses, totalling $165-million, were paid to employees of troubled insurer AIG over the weekend, including to traders in the unit that nearly brought about the company's collapse.

The wide margin of victory came despite sharp Republican attacks calling the legislation a ploy to paper over Obama administration missteps.

Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the bill was “a political circus” to divert attention from why the administration and congressional Democrats had not done more to block the bonuses.

However, although a number of Republicans first cast “no” votes, the political appeal of the legislation apparently won the day. In the closing moments of the roll call there was a heavy GOP migration from the “no” column to the “yes” side before the final vote was called.

Democratic leaders rushed the bill to the floor under a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority for passage.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said he expected local and state governments to take the remaining 10 per cent of the bonuses, nullifying the payouts.

Mr. Rangel said the bill would apply to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among others, while excluding community banks and other smaller companies that have received less bailout money.

A competing bill is gaining support in the Senate that would impose a 35 per cent excise tax on the companies paying the bonuses and a 35 per cent excise tax on the employees receiving them. The taxes would apply to all companies receiving government bailout money, but they are clearly geared toward AIG.

In the House, a nonbinding resolution to express “the sense of Congress that the president is appropriately exercising all of the authorities granted by Congress” to deal with economic crisis didn't fare as well as the vote to tax the bonuses. The vote on that measure was 255-160, short of the required two thirds margin.

A tax expert said there is plenty of precedent for levying punitive taxes on behaviour that lawmakers find objectionable. Robert Willens, a corporate tax lawyer in New York, cited the steep excise taxes levied on money paid to firms to keep them from launching hostile takeover bids, known as “greenmail.”

“You can write very narrowly tailored laws,” Mr. Willens said. “And they can do it for bonuses already paid.”

The bill passed as controversy swirled around the disclosure that, while Democrats and Republicans were both railing about the AIG bonuses, Democrats were also responsible for removing a provision, originally contained in stimulus legislation, to ban such bonuses.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said Wednesday his staff agreed to requests from the administration to delete the executive pay provision that would have applied retroactively to recipients of federal aid.

However, Mr. Dodd said he was not aware of any AIG bonuses at the time the change was made.

President Barack Obama, who took office just under two months ago, told reporters Wednesday that his administration was not responsible for a lack of federal supervision of AIG that preceded the company's demise.

But Obama added, “The buck stops with me.”
The Associated Press

BWAHAHAHA, majhor OWNAGE... 90% tax holy shit.

Serves them right, but the sad thing is that these ppl r still in control of the company. The management needs to be fired

"Pwnage bitches"

how can you tax a bonus separately? it's just added to the pay stub and added to the total taxable income. (In Canada anyways).

lot of that money wont make it back to the tax payers.