AIG has paid out close to $500 million in total performance and retention bonuses. The amts that are causing all the furor are simply the portion of that due on 3/15. Caught up in all of this, though you disagree, are many regular line staff, as you call them, that are foregoing the opportunity to leave AIG in return for their retention payments. Do you begrudge a person the opportunity to bring home a little extra when times are rough?
If that bonus is now criminalized what do they get? Many, if not all, of these people had absolutely nothing to do with the FP unit. Should they just be cast aside because the mob wants to see blood
I don't, but this isn't just a "little extra." This is people making quarter million and up. As a hardworking, normal guy on the bottom of the corporate food chain, though, I find it difficult to feel sympathy for their plight.
A little more reading material about the bonuses about the AIG bonuses at:
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/the-case-for-paying-out-bonuses-at-aig/
A.I.G. employees concocted complex derivatives that then wormed their way through the global financial system. If they leave — the buzz on Wall Street is that some have, and more are ready to — they might simply turn around and trade against A.I.G.’s book. Why not? They know how bad it is. They built it.
So as unpalatable as it seems, taxpayers need to keep some of these brainiacs in their seats, if only to prevent them from turning against the company. In the end, we may actually be better off if they can figure out how to unwind these tricky investments.
As distasteful as of this bonus bruhaha is, I can't get too worked up about it. In the grand scheme of things $160 million in bonuses is one one-thousandth of the $160 billion the government has already shoveled into AIG. Will that money ever be recouped? Probably not, so what difference does another 0.1% make?