Yeh, that was a rhetorical question. Funny how big bad Barney is all over the press today touting his "anger" Where was he all along?

No he isn't the only one, but still. He is the Financial Services Committee Chairman. It was his job. Seems rather hypocritical to come out and be all pissed off when he was the one charged with preventing this sort of thing.

I'll just shut up now and say "Good job Barney" :vomit:

Barney has been a master at deflecting any responsibility he has in this. And he has plenty. Another great example of the double standards of the Dems. If he jumps up and down enough and makes a big fuss over all of it he can be seen as taking the issue head on, all the while ignoring history.

On another note, this was a very good discussion concerning AGI:

42 min long

click listen now

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=101936770

Yeah...that's really interesting, Merc, but we were discussing AIG...


:P

I would suggest you are ignoring history if you ignore the role of Frank's republican predecessor, Michael Oxley, as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee for six years...particularly the unintended (?) consequences of SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Public Accounting Reform Act).

As well as the impact of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act by Clinton and the Republican Congress that torn down the wall between commercial and investment banking.

And Chris Cox, the Bush appointed chairman of the SEC who failed in holding the SEC to its independent oversight role.

There is plenty of blame to go around.

HOLY CRAP! :eek:

Rage at AIG Swells As Bonuses Go Out
A tidal wave of public outrage over bonus payments swamped American International Group yesterday. Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products, the division whose exotic derivatives brought the insurance giant to the brink of collapse last year. Inside, death threats and angry letters flooded e-mail inboxes. Irate callers lit up the phone lines. Senior managers submitted their resignations. Some employees didn't show up at all... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...031602961.html



It really does seem like these people are completely clueless, otherwise they would have been willing to waive their bonuses, like so many other people are being forced to do all around the country, even though they also had contracts. If this isn't brought under control, violence might break out, and that really would be a shame.

This is only the beginning of $400 million going to that department. AIG also has $600 million more in retention awards going out to about 4,700 people throughout its global insurance units. I expect some of those death threats/threats of violence may happen if something isn't done about this.


In addition, the bonuses are retention awards, but many of the people receiving them no longer work there. 11 people who don't work there received more than $1 million each.... According to the attorney general's office, the top individual bonus was more than $6.4 million, and the top seven received more than $4 million each...
http://www.usatoday.com/money/indust...g_N.htm?csp=34

You know, this isn't a secret (the bonuses). It really is disingenuous the way President Obama, Geitner and all the others are expressing such outrage. They should never have given AIG money without first outlining this stuff. While most of the money went out before Obama was president (I believe), they certainly could have held back that last $30 billion. THAT is on them. And hasn't Gietner been involved in this since the beginning?

Meanwhile one of our top disgraced bankers over here has walked away from the train wreck with a £650k per annum pension. Apparently he refuses to give up any of it. If he takes it in a lump sum I think he's due about £6m.

Yup - Remember that conversation Bush and Obama had just after the election? The one where the tarp money HAD to be released so that the world didn't crumble? Hmm, now they are blaming him for this too. Interesting.

I've also seen a whole lot of Barney Frank on all the cable news talking tough and playin politics. Not one question from any of the anchors about his position and what he was doing to prevent this type of thing from happening.
Anyone see where all the AIG donations went over the last few years? Chris Dodd was #1 on the list. Did he jump up to give that money back? Did any of them? They're FULL OF SHIT.

Even if they got AIG to pay back the bonus money, its coming from taxpayer money anyway. They're gonna pay you back with YOUR money - feel better now? WTFFF JFC GDMFPOS

So give it to him. In coins. From a great height.

It'd break my heart.

We found one guy to blame - Chris Dodd

Ummm...

By that standard, Harry Truman was personally behind every mistake and misdeed the entire government (congress included) made during both of his terms, because "the buck stops here".

Twist it however you like.

Hahahaha!

Sorry. Did I just laugh at you out loud?