Why Barney Frank’s Phony AIG Outrage is Worse Than the Bonuses
by Byrne Hobart
Categories: Uncategorized
It’s an outrage — handing someone millions of dollars when his employer is nearly bankrupt? It’s ridiculous — larding paychecks with taxpayer dollars? It’s unacceptable — paying out a giant bonus in the face of a huge recession?
It’s just business. Even though Barney Frank expressed outrage over AIG’s recent bonuses, people are (deliberately?) forgetting that AIG is a massive company, with over 100,000 employees in 130 countries. And the team responsible for most of the offices was a remarkably tiny group of remarkably arrogant traders.
If AIG’s structured products team is collecting these bonuses, it is, indeed, an outrage. But it’s much more likely that the bonus recipients aren’t the same team at all. AIG has a … Read more...