The AIG Show Trial

What is going on today with Ed Liddy, CEO of AIG, is a show trial of the sort that used to grace the Soviet Union.  Ed Liddy was not put in place by AIG, but the government.  The current Treasury Secy, Tim Geithner, while he was head of the NY Fed, put in place the AIG bailout and allowed the bonus deals.  Chris Dodd, Demo Senator, put an amendment in the 'Porkulus' bill to protect executive bonses - including these AIG bonuses.  Now that the political heat is falling on Obama and not Bush (you don't hear Bush's name anymore, do you?  All Obama, all the time), the Demo leadership from Obama to Dodd are 'shocked, shocked' to find bonuses are being paid.  They hope the show trial will deflect public anger; if it doesn't, expect Tim Geithner to take the fall. No one will shed a tear for an incompetent tax cheat.

This show trial is all political noise, but beware of what Obama said today at a press conference, which shows how clueless he is of the real world.  He never really held a job, after all.  He first said he wanted to end the 'culture of bonuses' - meaning he has no understanding of how to motivate sales people, in or out of Wall Street.  (BTW, if he removes these bonuses, expect the remaining sales people at the AIG trading desk to vacate, leaving virtually no one to manage $2.4T of credit default swaps - what a huge potential fiasco that will cause, all to save $165M of bonuses). Next he said he wanted to end the boom & bust cycle of the economy - a pattern built into human nature.  Even God wouldn't try that!  Finally he said he would have Barney Frank come up with the answer - Barney Frank! the fox in the henhouse who thwarted 12 attempts by Republicans to end the excesses of Fannie/Freddie that was the proximate cause of the housing bubble.

No wonder Obama's political support has dropped hard - his incompetence is showing. The spread of strongly approve vs strongly disapprove has dropped from 30% to 7%, and got as low as 4%, according to Rasmussen.  He gets poor grades from economists, according to a WSJ poll. And at one time, 60% of MSNBC viewers in an unscientific poll rated him an F  - this from his must supportive TV network! 

This show trial is distractig the public from a much worse AIG issue - $120B of the $170B of bailout went right out to the counter-parties of these swaps.  Goldman Sachs got $13B, etc.  And none of them has any responsibility to pay it back.  Who is responsible for that?  It should make us very cautious to let the governent get its hooks into any other companies. It has destroyed AIG through inattention and now massive political meddling. Maybe the real trial should put the real culprits up, nt the fall guy. 

Comments

[Abdullatif]

I like to add some other stuff I don't judge or take sides because I know its wrong but here is a great story let me tell you about a small town thats on the map in the news tinyrg to make proffit but in a bad way this town is very crooked really bad they judge a man sole or proffit on his spirit here they judge people on socail secirty tinyrg to make a great future for them self like if they go to college they don't like that they judge you for that even police officer judge you because they belive your a criminal you should never have a life no matter what you can't even change your live around to make a bright future for your self even if a person was plant in bad sowel he can still change into a good person or if the sowel was good and the person went bad he still has a chance to change into a great person but in this town state of Iowa town city clinton they judge you here bad and discriminat against you here they believe your stealing stuff from them you live you all your live but they bring new people into this town and try to push you out even the police station is corrupted why let me tell you why say if a person turned him self into the police for breaking the law you know what they do they rush you into stuff not to help you but to hurt you see a person could have avoided this by going to see a psychologist and none of this would have happen what you say like stuff putting into the press letting the community hurt and discriminat a person they do this alot in clinton,Iowa they hire wrong people here so they can get rich off of a person here so you see its every where this could be happening..

[Enzo]

Sometimes politics can get weird, and The Satirical Political Report prvoes this with this news item: Congress Passes New e28098Seinfelde28099 Law: AIG Execs e28098Have to Be Our Butlerse28099