Monday, March 16, 2009

Today's Fly Or Die Commerce Report: President Obama Wants AIG's Bonuses Rescinded

American International Group Inc., a financial corporation that received billions of dollars of taxpayers money in a bailout, disbursed $165 million in bonuses to their executives on Friday. The same executives who were at the helm of the company during the time that it came close to folding, have been rewarded with money in excess of their regular salaries.

President Obama is reportedly very upset about the payout of bonuses. He has vowed to pursue every legal tactic he cam employ in order to get the executives to return their bonuses.

According to The Wall Street Journal, President Obama has stated: "This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed. Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat? This isn't just a matter of dollars and cents. It's about our fundamental values."

I think that strict parameters should have been layed out for corporations before they received bailout money. It should be illegal for corporations to use struggling taxpayers' money for luxuries.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You would think with all the economic brainpower in the USA, someone would have thought of setting guidelines for all of this money, since the companies themselves failed with the money then initally had.
I hope someone in Washington has learned a lesson.
I still don't see how this could have happened. Let's face it
anyone who gives out money has a process outlineing how the money is to be used; basic proposals do that much. So, how can the government give out money carte blanc? Beats me and I'm not that educated.