They Were Expendable

As a stockholder of AIG I demand the money back from the twenty five people who threw AIG under the bus and then the company. CEO Liddy says these people were so important they gave them millions of dollars in retention bonuses after they left. THEY JUST DON'T GET IT. There are millions of people unemployed. As a stockholder I demand they go out and find people to replace the bozos who lost a billion dollars. Oh, they already left. Oh, they already got their money. As a stockholder I demand to know the names of the twenty five people who trashed the company and the economy. CEO Liddy says he cannot give those names for the harm that might befall them. You know what.. HES RIGHT. Simple solution. Give us back our money and no harm will come to these people. As a stockholder I demand an immediate cessation of all bonuses. Oh, well, we cant do that because there are millions more already promised in the insurance side of the business in RETENTION BONUS. So the irreplaceable insurance adjuster stands to get a million bucks just to stay in his job. Again, as a stockholder I demand management go out to the MILLIONS of people looking for work and find replacements for these people too. CEO Liddy says these people are the best and the brightest. Then lets go find the Worst and the Dumbest. In fact, as a stockholder, I demand we find the biggest morons to work at AIG and pay them no retention bonus. I'm sure they will be fine with that.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

The Domino Theory

When we were in Vietnam they said that if Vietnam fell then the rest of Indochina would go Communist. They invoked the Domino theory to say one thing will cause another. Ten years later we left and Vietnam became a Communist country and nothing else happened. Then they said that if we didn't go in and take over Iraq they would have a weapon of mass destruction and throw it our way. The domino theory again. If we don't act then certain doom. We went in and could not find a weapon of mass destruction. We are still there. Then they said that if we didn't reelect the President the evil doers would come over and attack us and by the way we are on high alert for another attack. The other candidate looked very wimpy after some well placed swiftboating and we added torture and wiretapping the entire population to our Bill of Rights. Then they said that if we did not immediately give seven hundred billion dollars to the banks all hell would break loose. We gave seven hundred billion and all hell broke loose anyway. Then they said that if we did not bail out AIG to the tune of one hundred and seventy billion then the entire financial system would disintegrate. We gave AIG the money and they gave it to foreign banks and brokers and other people who they won't even name. The financial system might fall apart anyway and AIG is probably going away. The domino theory only works on fear and it has worked well for forty years. When I was a kid I used to line up dominoes on the floor and push one down and watch them fall. It was pretty cool. But sometimes, for no reason at all, the dominoes just stopped on their own. Go figure.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com

The Three Percent

What is really behind the AIG bonus rage is the suspicion that there is a group of people in this country who are laughing their way to the bank. It is that old idiom that ninety seven percent of the money is given to three percent of the people and the remaining ninety seven percent must split the remaining three percent. AIG bears this out. But what is really behind our collective outrage is that this group of people who seem to have it all don't work for their money. They don't. Ivy League schools dump out business graduates and they are snapped up by companies like AIG who put them in positions that require six figure retention bonuses. Normal people do not get hundreds of thousands of dollars for staying on the job. But once you are the three percent then the Christmas baubles rein down. You not only get the bonuses but outrageous salaries and stock options that set up people for life. For Life. The deck is surely stacked. Imagine what has gone on under the wire. We are getting a fraction of what really goes on in the land of three percent. Millions of dollars are paid out that we will never know about. And these people are not putting in brutal hours, making life and death decisions. These are derivative traders, glorified mortgage brokers who just have a much much more lucrative yield spread. Instead of making a few thousand on a loan they make a few million. America was founded on the precept that yes anyone can become anything but we also demand a level playing field. That was what the Revolution was all about. We should not be put in a position where others can take advantage of of us. So we have a representative form of government that says we all have the same rights under the law and the same opportunities. But it would seem that the three percent have an unfair advantage over the rest of us. The three percent get their money regardless. Why? Because they are entitled and entitlement goes beyond a bankrupt company or an economy teetering on a depression. Americans hate the thought that one group of people are somehow more deserving because of the accident of birth or an Ivy league school. Sure, give them their money, but lets see them earn it. That's what the rest of us have to do. We have to work and earn our money. Maybe the three percent should earn theirs now, because I don't think America can afford to have a slacker class anymore.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com

You've Got To Be Kidding

Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, start a revolution. You have got to be kidding. AIG now is taking the money the government gave them and paying out MILLIONS of dollars in bonuses. Listen up all my friends who work for a living...they are taking your dollars (we now own eighty percent) and paying out not thousands, not hundreds but MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to individuals. Some people are receiving a million dollars and more in one check! You are going to love the rationalization--it would be illegal not to pay them. Oh OK. WHAT!!!!!!!!!! You mean the company that bought tons of bad derivatives, the very people the financial arm of AIG the very people that bought this stuff...THEY ARE THE ONES GETTING THE MONEY! It would be like driving a bus off a cliff and then getting paid a million dollars for doing it. The treasury department raised a stink but determined the bonuses are LEGAL. WHAT???????????? So, a company that would not be in existence except for tax payer money (EIGHTY PERCENT) is saying that legally they have to pay the people who bankrupted the company. COME ON. Tell me they would pay them if they went bankrupt. This is straight highway robbery. You have to love the CEO justification. They can't attract quality people unless they pay them well. WHAT! Quality people! A bag lady who did nothing but sit at a desk could have done a better job than these guys--she at least wouldn't have thrown the money away on worthless mortgage back securites! These are the people who threw the company under the bus and now us. GIVE ME A BREAK. I mean if you are going to rob a bank and steal money at least use a gun and call it what it is. But to say it is legal is an insult to every person with an eight grade education. Even a kid knows when they are being gypped. And we are being gypped in the worst way. And here is the real shot between the eyes. They don't want to tell anyone what they are doing with the billions they are paying out. That money is going to Bank of America and others through back door insurance policies. So we are giving the money to more people who are paying other people bonuses and giving them trips.
The United States=Plutocracy. Rule by the wealthy. Plutocrats. A-I-G.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com

A GD Insurance Salesman

The sky is falling. AIG COULD TANK! The government is tossing in another thirty billion but the chairman says that is a pittance. He reckons (folksy) that it would probably take about 300 billion to keep them afloat. Just a mere three hundred billion and even then he doesn't know if that is enough. So right now every man woman and child is on the hook for fourteen hundred bucks on the AIG Bailout. In other words we own AIG. My mother in law reeled in horror when I said I was going to earn some extra money by selling insurance: "A Goddamn insurance salesman," she fumed. Well that says it all doesn't it. You know those guys who bet against you. When you die they might pay off. When you get sick they don't pay off. When you get a ticket your rates go up. When you go to the doctor your rates go up or if something is wrong or they drop you. Or your kid goes to the doctor and they claim a preexisting condition from five years before and so we aren't going to pay for the treatment thank you very much. They are the same guys that debit your account every month for insurance that does NOTHING. If your house burns down, if your car crashes, if you get sick, if you die, if someone sues you, if lightning strikes...if, if, if, if, if...then they may or may not payoff. And if there is a loophole they will find it. I'm sorry that insurance only covered you if you the car hit you but you caused the accident. SORRY. Oh and by the way, we dropped you. Oh, you didn't go to traffic school and now you have a ticket. SORRY. We just doubled your rates and it doesn't matter that you had a perfect driving record--We need more money to insure your sorry ass OR ELSE! Else? That's right pal, you will be UNINSURED. Oh, you mean like the millions of people who can't get health insurance. Oh right. THOSE PEOPLE. By all means insure me, let's see, I'll take an umbrella policy, a life insurance policy, a health policy, a homeowners policy, a car insurance policy, and throw in a renter policy just to be on the safe side. THANK GOD I AM INSURED! Oh, by the way, you know all that money you have been giving us for twenty years--WE LOST IT! Whoops. Threw it away on derivatives. And here's the kicker. The CEO of forty years is now suing us! The nerve of this guy. He says we didn't tell him we were broke when he cashed out and became our biggest shareholder. Hey, you FD up pal...you TRUSTED US. Sucker. They say one is born every minute. But ..listen....ha ha...we need three hundred billion just to stay afloat because if you let us go baby then we all go! KABOOM. Game over! So don't even think about the way we have ripped you off for years because if we go then the economy is TOAST. So...now you are all stockholders. That's right. We are all in this boat together and we sink or swim. So there you have it, now whose the Goddamn insurance salesman? Huh?