CHESSNOID

This company should no longer exist. They have lost billions of dollars and were literally insolvent for all intents and purposes. They should have went bankrupt and all the asset should have been sold. Instead, our government continues to reward them with tax payer funded bonuses while the economy slips into the Bush-Obama Depression.

I have many Obamabots telling me I should be patient and give the current administration more time to prove themselves.  WHY?

The current administration has proven themselves to be no different than the previous administration based on their actions and not their words.  The AIG debacle is a perfect example of poor decision making skills.  The company is insolvent.  They have laid off employees, thrown lavish parties, and still are not making money.  We create a corporate czar for the purpose of approving bonuses!  Explain to me how this makes any sense.

NY Times:

New York-based AIG remains the focus of intense scrutiny, after becoming one in a string of corporate calamities and a touchstone for public fury. The huge volume of credit default swaps — a form of insurance against bond defaults — sold by AIG, coupled with rising levels of defaulted mortgage and other debt, threatened the company’s existence and prompted the government to step in.

Government aid to AIG totals about $180 billion.

The $450 million in bonuses that AIG allocated in 2008 for employees, including to traders in the financial products unit that brought it to the brink of collapse, fueled public and congressional outrage. The first installment of those payments earlier this year sparked legislation in Congress to slap punishing taxes on big bonuses at AIG and other companies bailed out by taxpayers, though the Senate didn’t act on that plan.

If a company is supposedly too big to fail and continues to literally lose billions of dollars and becomes insolvent, then don’t bail them out and throw tax payer money at them.  Shut the company down, break down its assets, and sell the profitable parts of the company to other companies that are performing well. And for Pete’s sake, let’s use some common sense and PLEASE don’t pay bonuses to the people who bankrupted the company to begin with.  The argument that these are key people and we need to pay them extra to stay is a ridiculous argument.