If you want to understand the Wall Street meltdown, you could do worse than to read the latest great piece my Mike Taibbi who is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. Taibbi was on The Rachael Maddow Show last night on MSNBC and while I missed that, I did not miss his article in Rolling Stone and I don't think you should either. You can link to it HERE.
There was what I considered to be an interesting take on the AIG bonuses in today's New York Times. It's a letter of resignation from somebody who worked in the division of AIG (AIG Financial Products or, AIGFP) which was responsible for the collapse of the insurance giant and, by extension, the collapse of the U.S. (and World) economy. Democommie's not buying it but I'm not so sure this guy isn't on the level. You can decide for yourself HERE.
Democommie (with whom I hate to differ because, let's face it, he may well be the brightest guy in America) suggests that if the guy smelled something rotten in Denmark, er, AIGFP, he "should have manned up back in September and went to DoJ and spilled the beans. " It's hard to argue with that.
Unless he didn't know.
I don't know how things worked over at AIG, but I've heard that in a lot of companies the work is highly compartmentalized and you don't always know what the guy in the next cubicle or in the office down the hall is up to. I'm inclined to give the guy who resigned the benefit of doubt but if I'm wrong, well, it won't exactly be the first time.
Read up, Everybody. I notice a lot of you have new posts today and I'm excited about getting to them so we'll see you soon with many a difficult-to-understand posting in all of your "comments" sections.
Reflecting on Richard Hauptmann
2 years ago
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6 comments:
Richard:
I actually did think about that possibility and then dismissed it; reason being, nobody is going to be spreading around that kind of money when the company is hemorraging red ink, without a quid pro quo. Of course I could be wrong, I'll take my chances on that.
Speaking of AIG and populist rage, go read David Rees’ post about death threats, here. Kinda puts a whole new spin on things.
Dave von Ebers:
Done and done.
Richard,
As a former AIG staff attorney I can say unequivocally your comment about the comparmentalized and insular nature of the different untis was on the mark. For large numbers of AIG staff what exists outside their own rarified little product realm was unknown to them. AIG has a spider's web of corporate interelationships with if I remember it right from my days there some 120-150 different entities all tied back together with very, very complex stock and capital arrangments. You could be working with one highly toxic part of the evil empire and never know the person accross the hall was actually texting Satan's personal blackberry. So you conclusion might be right.
This is exactly what I was talking about, Demo. I come up with a convoluted and specious argument and you answer brilliantly with a metaphor or a bit of symbolism (I cannot be sure which) involving "quid pro quo" which, if I am not mistaken, is a type of Japanese sea food. I continue to search for the inner meaning in your words even as I rage, rage, against the machine. Let us never forget, it's the man, man!
gmanitou and Richard:
While I have no doubt, ergofactenomically, about AIG being compartmentalized to the extent that very few people would see the entire corporate gestalt I just gotta think that when someone is told that they'll be getting their enormous bonus (at least by the standards of 95% or more of americans) while the company is shedding jobs and tumbling into the pit, well, I don't think I'd have a problem figuring out that there was something unkosher about the whole deal.
Besides, going to the NYT with one's letter of resignation is a sign of someone with an enormous fucking ego IMO. I gave my resignation from Verizon to FoxNews, but only as a public service.
democommie
P.S. Richard you're thinking of "Squid pro quo", the mistake is a natural one.
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