There is more to this than meets the eye. If the gov/us owns 80% of AIG and they would be bankrupt (contracts null and void) without the two bailouts and the president did not want them to get the bonuses then WHY did they let them give them out. They knew in advance they planned to give out 165M to a company that lost 61B last quarter. Is Geithner, Dodd, Obama afraid of a lawsuit?
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/finance/dodd-cracks-aig---time/This is very interesting, almost unbelievable. Look at the chart also. AIG has a dark blue tint to it. Look at the top two recipients of AIG contributions.
357max is right. In the last stimulus bill (you know the 1100 page bill that no one read over the weekend but the world would come to an end if it wasn't signed Monday) Chris Dodds amendment guarantees the bonuses contractually agreed to before February 11, 2009.
So a lot of this political outrage is for show IMO. They will use these clips in 2010 and 2012 for campaign purposes.
I don't like the idea of the gov. using taxes in this way (100% tax) to recover the bonuses. Who's next on their list?
Obama limits top management pay to match his. Now bonuses. Government control is increasing to alarming levels.
Don't get me wrong. I think AIG had no right to hand out bonuses (bonuses are for profitable companies)after losing 61B in one quarter. But the government is going to use this to restructure the financial system so a "tragedy like this" can never happen again.