AIG

[classicman]

Not just the finance industry. Bonuses are common in many others as well. In this case they were retention payments, not bonuses. That buzzword created all this outrage over virtually nothing. There are many more and much larger payments scheduled in other organizations.
Everyone knew these were on the books. There were no surprises, just a bunch of bureaucrats covering their asses when the public got outraged.

Look to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, both in charge of oversight on these matters. Certainly they have all the answers to the whys and hows of all this. After all, thats what we pay them for. If they pull their collective heads out of their asses long enough, just ask them.

[tw]

Originally Posted by classicman

Not just the finance industry. Bonuses are common in many others as well.

Funny. I worked in many productive operations. Bonuses occur only when the entire company is productive. The message is out. Bonuses are not deserved only because the employee's salary is not high enough. It is not about what is common. It’s about people who are typically not productive (finance people) who then take massive rewards for being part of that non-productive operation.

But again, is the purpose of the company its profits - or being a productive entity in America? Obviously the latter.

So Nardelli who was running Home Depot into the ground took a $200 million bonus (or whatever you want to call it). Or Thain manipulates bonuses so that Merril Lynch employees get bonuses provided by Tarp money and before the BoA takeover. Clearly these employees and CEO who did so much harm to America deserved them. classicman tells us they deserve to be paid more than doctors, scientists, engineers, and farmers because ... he does not say. Soundbyte logic with a left right dichotomy that would instead blame Barney Franks.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by classicman

Not just the finance industry. Bonuses are common in many others as well. In this case they were retention payments, not bonuses.

Who cares what you call them?

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by classicman

Not just the finance industry. Bonuses are common in many others as well. In this case they were retention payments, not bonuses. That buzzword created all this outrage over virtually nothing. There are many more and much larger payments scheduled in other organizations.
Everyone knew these were on the books. There were no surprises, just a bunch of bureaucrats covering their asses when the public got outraged.

Look to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, both in charge of oversight on these matters. Certainly they have all the answers to the whys and hows of all this. After all, thats what we pay them for. If they pull their collective heads out of their asses long enough, just ask them.

They renamed them "retention awards" because they knew this was going to a problem.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by sugarpop

They renamed them "retention bonuses" because they knew this was going to a problem.

Who cares what they call them? "Bonuses", "Retention Payments", etc. It's all crap, just another way to hand our tax money over to rich bastards for being failures.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by sugarpop

They renamed them "retention awards" because they knew this was going to a problem.

While I share your outrage that Wall Street is maintaining their entitlement attitude, and MY money is being thrown around by the bushel to people that have been overpaid for years, I believe the original contracts were written as retention payments, and bonuses is a description the press substituted thinking very few people would know what retention bonuses are.