Sunday, March 29, 2009

Smackdown

Courtesy of Matt Taibbi:

Like a lot of people, I read Wednesday's New York Times editorial by former AIG Financial Products employee Jake DeSantis, whose resignation letter basically asks us all to reconsider our anger toward the poor overworked employees of his unit.

DeSantis has a few major points. They include: 1) I had nothing to do with my boss Joe Cassano's toxic credit default swaps portfolio, and only a handful of people in our unit did; 2) I didn't even know anything about them; 3) I could have left AIG for a better job several times last year; 4) but I didn't, staying out of a sense of duty to my poor, beleaguered firm, only to find out in the end that; 5) I would be betrayed by AIG senior management, who promised we would be rewarded for staying, but then went back on their word when they folded in highly cowardly fashion in the face of an angry and stupid populist mob.

I have a few responses to those points. They are 1) Bullshit; 2) bullshit; 3) bullshit, plus of course; 4) bullshit. Lastly, there is 5) Boo-Fucking-Hoo. You dog.

Keep reading.

2 comments:

toronto real estate said...

Ok. AIG and the bonuses. I get it, millions are millions and it takes time for people to move on.

But what about trillions of dollars? Isn't that supposed to be way much more money than that involved with the bonuses scandal?

Isn't it time to move on and watch what the US government is trying to do in silence while the rage is still going on? (http://docstalk.blogspot.com/2009/03/forget-bonus-outrage-what-about.html)

Take care,
Elli

blackink said...

Eh, TRE, I'm not sure I follow you. "Retention bonuses" are not quite - not at all, actually - the same thing as the assorted buyouts the government has tried to save a number of our doddering companies and industries.

Maybe you disagree with the scale of the buyouts (and there's a good case to be made for that anger) but, no doubt, it's not remotely similar to paying off AIG execs above and beyond their regular salaries while the company tanked.