Sometimes you have to wonder "what were they thinking?" Perhaps the executives at AIG translated the "too big to fail" into "too big for being reasonable." Apparently, they were the only ones who interpreted it that way... or maybe they thought no one would notice a mere $165 million after hundreds of billions were being doled out.
See additional info in the right column at "McCotter's Corner."Washington, D.C. - Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Chairman of Republican House Policy Committee and the first member of Congress to oppose the Wall Street bailout, released the following statement in response to AIG's announcement of executive bonuses totaling $165 million:
Abject failure."AIG has affronted and defied the public and its representative government. This ‘too big to fail’ company that is now 80 percent owned by the American taxpayer, is now lavishing its executives with $165 million in bonuses. For what?
Joining Rep. McCotter was President Obama as told in The New York Times:
..WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday vowed to try to stop the faltering insurance giant American International Group from paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives, as the administration scrambled to avert a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street that could complicate Mr. Obama’s economic recovery agenda.
“In the last six months, A.I.G. has received substantial sums from the U.S. Treasury,” Mr. Obama said. He added that he had asked Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner “to use that leverage and pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.”