The Huffington Post is a partisan hack blog/news site nowhere near the legitimacy of Fox News. But I agree the specific content is factual. (Republicans oppose salary caps for CEO's) They better oppose it! The article in question tried to blame the powerless republican's for the EIG bonuses which simply rubbed me the wrong way. We have plenty of problems to blame on the republican's, there is no reason to make new ones up.

Well, there is no way to prove fake emotions, so I have to concede that point for now. (Until we find out when Obama was told of the AIG bonuses) But it does disturb me that our President believes the government has a right to set salary limits for private corporations. The only way elected officials have such a right is if such limitations are written into the bailout legislation. I get the feeling Barack would like to set CEO salary limits for all corporations, not just the ones government bails out. I can only hope he proves me wrong.

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The (almost)Great SupPackFan Quotes:
"The more times you drive over a cat - the flatter it gets!"
"Differentiating legal and illegal immigration is as critical as separating child adoption from child abduction."

Drive Bias

Only irrationalists would use "legitimate" and "FOX News" in the same sentence.

I think all of this would have been solved had the gov't nationalized the banks in the first place, and then allow some of them to get eaten up for cheap by some of the others, while we could have placed heavy restrictions on exec pay and completely eliminated bonuses.

This mess was brought to us and our gov't because of wretched corporate excess and greed in America, not because some people in gov't are dumb.

The banking system in America, along with so many other things, is broken. No one has any confidence in it, and the world is looking to America to get control of it's banks and set tight regulations like they have in many other countries. It wouldn't be socialist at all to do, but now we're given no other choice but to place controls on Wall Street, because they're a bunch of pigs who could really care less about the rest of us.

On the matter of Chris Dodd and anyone else who either feigns outrage or tries to get by on "I didn't know/I didn't do it/Not me", that's not friggin' good enough!!!

YOU'RE FIRED!!!!

Democrats WHO WROTE the 787 BILLION DOLLAR stimulus bill--namely CRISS DODD--put in an exclusion on bonuse's paid to AIG. In other words--it was O.K that AIG paid this 165 million in bonuse's to it's employees.

It's in the 787 SIMULUS BILL--Congressional democrats passed this bill--& Barack Obama signed off on it.

Dude, you're arguing for the nationalization of the banking system, albeit passive aggressively.

I say come out of the closet and just stand up for it.

If they can't run their shit, than the we the people will have to do it for them and for ourselves, since credit cannot be allowed to dry up.

you can only lead a horse to water Oreo...

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Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

so bush pulled the bill back to committee to wipe out the writ that would have prevented bonus’s being paid....I didn't know that, cheney too? Those bastards...

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

I've read that thread, and those with your opinion have been proven wrong over and over again.

It amazes me how someone can live on the same continent as I and see things so differently. Ground Zero of the banking/insurance problems is Freddy, Fanny, and executive abuse of their GSE (Governement Sponsored Enterprise) format. With the home values rising wildly, the Clinton administration watched middle class families gain equity and figured it was not fair poor families could not get in on this as well. They adopted a policy to get as many families into home ownership status as possible by using the GSE relationship to apply government pressure on Freddy and Fanny to lower financial requirements.

Freddy and Fanny complied, creating new 'subprime' loans at higher interest with lower financial requirements. From there greed and questionable ethics created the avalanch - but never forget that government set off the firecracker that started it all. Not just Clinton, but the Bush administration praised the Clinton programs for minority home ownership and continued the policies put in place. We can hand out blame all the way down from there . . . but to ignore that government was the source of the problem is to rewrite history.

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The (almost)Great SupPackFan Quotes:
"The more times you drive over a cat - the flatter it gets!"
"Differentiating legal and illegal immigration is as critical as separating child adoption from child abduction."

Drive Bias

"All I need to know is, when the Democrats were in control, I was always working. When the Republicans are in control, I'm not." - Jeff the Unemployed of Alameda, CA.

Hey Rip Van Winkle how long you been sleeping?

Who is this "us" and "our" that you speak of?

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Chassisman be lovin him some fishin'

Tell that to Michigan, the democrat controlled state.......

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Chassisman be lovin him some fishin'

and they got bonus's and will again, this year..

While everyone assails AIG for using less than 0.1% of the taxpayer-bailout money it received to meet contractual obligations in compensation through retention bonuses, another recipient of government largesse has its own bonus program in operation. According to their annual report, Freddie Mac has a generous retention bonus plan built into its operation for the next year. Eligibility includes all of the senior and executive VPs. It comes in four payouts, and only the last has any connection to company performance.

Exhibit 10-4 on page 414-5 lays out the program:
Objective To retain as many people as possible for 18 months (through March, 2010) in order to:
Maintain maximum operational stability
Allow time to evaluate the fundamental business model
Fulfill Freddie Mac’s goal of re-establishing stability and liquidity to the mortgage market
Retention Period Retention Period runs from September 2008 through March 2010.
General Eligibility All Senior Vice Presidents and Executive Vice Presidents who are employees of Freddie Mac on or after September 1, 2008 are eligible to participate in the program.


Freddie Mac pays the bonus on a quarterly basis for simply sticking around, at least until the final quarter:
Payout Timing The aggregate retention award for each individual will be paid in the regular payroll cycle occurring immediately after the following dates …
1 20% December 15, 2008
2 20% August 1, 2009
3 25% December 15, 2009
4 35% March 15, 2010

Payment Numbers 1, 2, and 3 will be based solely in the individual’s continued employment with Freddie Mac the through the indicated payment dates.
Performance Requirements Payment Number 4 will be conditioned upon achievement of specific performance objective(s) that will be determined during the upcoming businessplanning process.

That sounds a lot like the AIG retention bonus plan, although Freddie Mac does have a disclaimer stating that they can modify or end the program at their discretion. Since Freddie Mac and her sister Fannie Mae got over $200 billion in a pre-TARP bailout, more than the private AIG got (at least in the aggregate), one might ask why Freddie Mac built in retention bonuses in this November filing — two months after the taxpayer bailout.


Update: The Wall Street Journal is also on the case:
Fannie Mae is due to pay retention bonuses of as much $470,000 to $611,000 this year to some executives despite enormous losses at the government-backed mortgage company. Fannie’s main rival, Freddie Mac, also plans to pay such bonuses but hasn’t yet provided details.

Fannie’s bonuses are smaller than ones paid by American International Group Inc. that have caused a political firestorm for that company. Many AIG executives got retention payments of more than $1 million recently.
But the Fannie bonuses are still considerable and come at a time when Fannie and Freddie are receiving increasing amounts of funding from the Treasury. For 2008, Fannie and Freddie reported combined losses of about $108 billion, largely stemming from a surge in home-mortgage defaults. The U.S. Treasury has agreed to provide as much as $200 billion of capital apiece to Fannie and Freddie in exchange for senior preferred stock. The two companies already have said they will need a combined $60 billion of that money to cover their losses so far.

Hot Air Blog Archive Hey, guess who else has an executive retention bonus plan?

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

Don't forget Cali...dude.

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"If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine," he said. "It's the post office that's always having problems." Barack Obama on government run healthcare. 08/11/2009

American by birth.
Conservative by the grace of God.

Still sore about the war of northern aggression.

All the figures for AIG donating money is an aggregate of individual contributions...

It's not an institutional contribution. Rather it's the free choice of a citizen.


This happens all the time....only the corporations' and politicians' names change. I'm not sure on what grounds an investigation should/would take place. If you are really concerned about eliminating pay-to-play, you are talking about a War... not a battle.

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The world could use more Stan Ovshinsky's

Are you saying you have not worked in the last 8 years? Because just two years ago--we had full employment in the 4.5% range which is considered full employment.