Free Republic

President Barack Obama's TARP Executive Compensation Master (also known as the "Pay Czar") was on the defensive in an interview with Neil Cavuto of the Fox Business Network. The latest trend in the administration is to place the President in the role of seeing no evil, speaking no evil, and hearing no evil.

The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G. DEAR Mr. Liddy, It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context: I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or...

DEAR Mr. Liddy, It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context: I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the...

President Obama has wisely said that he will not lead in fits of anger, but his administration’s maladroit handling of the mess at the American International Group has helped stoke the flames of anger. [...] Recent research at West Point on crisis leadership tells us that people need confidence in the competence of their leaders — not last month’s scare tactics, last week’s likability through late-night levity on television or this month’s diffusion of responsibility, with the buck stopping in some other guy’s office. How is it that every political leader except the president “knew the issues’” around these old...

Andrew M. Cuomo [...] often likens his investigations to a fine opera. The opening act [...] is taken up with his investigation and rivets the audience’s attention. The middle acts are sung by tenors from executive suites, who agree to change their misbegotten ways. The final act, in his rendition, is played by Congress or the State Legislature, which enacts new laws and systemic reform. ... Mr. Cuomo’s use of his office, its powers and its bully pulpit, is muscular. He has [issued subpoenas to get] the names of bonus recipients from American International Group and Merrill Lynch. [...] But...

An email from the head of a controversial unit at AIG suggests employees who gave up their bonuses did not do so voluntarily, but feared their names would be released if they did not. The email, obtained by CNBC, states the following: “Please be aware that we have received assurances from Attorney General Cuomo that no names will be released by his office before he completes a security review which is expected to take at least a week. To the extent that we meet certain participation targets, it is not expected that the names would be released, at all.” The...

Congress' lopsided vote on Thursday to tax AIG executives' bonuses at no less than 90%, and to apply the same to other bailout recipients, undermines Constitutional and contract law and is a clear abuse of power. Americans who applaud this act may want to think twice. If Congress is willing to break the law to confiscate these executives' bonuses, what will stop it from extending legislation to those who receive no government bailout money? You may say that's absurd. This is a special case. Congress is merely recovering taxpayer money from ill-managed and profligate enterprises. But Charles Krauthammer writes: "[T]here...

Who would have thought 55 days into this administration we would be asking the question, what did he know and when did he know it? Word that a provision in the stimulus bill gave the green light for AIG to hand out bonuses using taxpayer money sent the media bloodhounds hot on the trail of whoever is the culprit. For a time, it looked like Senate Banking chairman Chris Dodd would take the fall, but after 24 hours of twisting in the wind, Dodd said the change that exempted past agreements to pay bonuses was made at the request of...

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – A busload of activists — outnumbered 2-to-1 by reporters and photographers — are paying visits to the homes of American International Group Inc. executives in Connecticut to protest tens of millions in bonuses awarded by the company. About 40 protesters parked at a cul-de-sac Saturday afternoon and walked to the Fairfield home of Douglas Polling. They were met on the curb by two security guards, and one activist read a letter detailing the financial struggles that many Connecticut residents have faced. The group then left the note in Polling's mailbox.

"AIG is Obama's 'Katrina' -- in terms of an example of government's failure -- and the failure of presidential leadership." ... That's according to former Ohio Secretary of State and Family Research Council Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell. Clearly the AIG bonus story has spurred a huge populist backlash -- building on angst which had previously only been manifest during the Santelli rant -- and subsequent tea parties. But anger over the AIG bailout appears to be just now reaching fever pitch, and it is starting to look like the bonus scandal may be laid solely at the feet of Democrats...

The mainstream media is reporting the fiasco over a company receiving tens of billions of dollars to avoid bankruptcy paying out $163 million in bonuses to their executives as "Republicans and Democrats trying to outdo one another in being outraged." What most of the media is not telling you is that Democrats are 100% responsible for the AIG bonus fiasco. One hundred percent. The place to begin is the first thread that began to unravel. From CNN: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Democratic leaders scrambling to strip AIG executives of bonuses are having a hard time answering a key question: Why didn't...

If you've got a knack for knowing how much is too much in Wall Street bonuses, then the Treasury Department could have a job for you. As Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner faced withering criticism for failing to root out big bonuses to executives at insurance giant American International Group Inc., the Treasury Department this week ran a couple of job ads that could help it avoid missing any more dubious payments. Posted on a government jobs database Tuesday and Thursday, the ads seek applicants for the positions of executive compensation specialist and lead executive compensation specialist. According to one...

Federal Reserve officials knew for months about bonuses at American International Group but failed to tell the Obama administration, according to government and company officials, exposing problems in a relationship that is vital to addressing the financial crisis. This claim is not sitting well with Democrats. “I’m sick and tired of hearing the administration and the Secretary of the Treasury say, ‘I just found out about it,’ ” Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.) said yesterday. The Washington Post points out that Obama’s Treasury Secretary’s in fact knew about the bonuses months ago. AIG officials met with Geithner and then Treasury...

A fiery palate cleanser from this afternoon’s Studio B. Note the ringing populist note on which it ends. Good enough for Glenn Beck, good enough for Shep!

<p>WASHINGTON – The House is scheduled to vote today on a bill that would levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at companies that have received at least $5 billion in government bailout money.</p>

Speaking to a crowd of 1,500 supporters in Costa Mesa, California, about the bonuses given to employees of 80% taxpayer owned AIG, President Barack Obama said: “I know a lot of you are outraged about this. I’m outraged, too.” We’ll leave for others to decide the level of Obama’s outrage, especially considering reports this morning that the Obama Administration found out about the bonuses on February 28, not March 10, as they originally claimed. But what we would like to see some genuine outrage over are the millions of taxpayer dollars going to executives at the taxpayer owned companies Freddie...

To our surprise, Hill sources tell us House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is getting significant behind-the-scenes pushback from several of her committee chairmen against moving quickly on legislation imposing steep excise taxes on executive bonuses granted by firms that receive taxpayer bailouts, like American International Group, Inc. We wholeheartedly endorse their belief that there should be a prudent and well-calculated examination of the situation before slapping together legislation to address the challenges presented by AIG's controversial rewarding of its officers. Senior Democratic sources said Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, and Financial Services committee Chairman Barney Frank have argued privately...

To use a current cliché, frequently deployed to humiliate bankers and CEOs: He doesn’t get it. Barack Obama, that is. He just doesn’t get it, and nor do millions of others who are following the U.S. President on his long destructive march against bankers and corporate executives for their alleged “recklessness and greed.” Those were the words Mr. Obama used yesterday when he instructed treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, to “pursue every legal avenue” to block the payment of $165-million in bonuses to employees of AIG Financial Products. News of the payments sparked a demagogic explosion in Congress and the U.S....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top White House economic adviser said on Tuesday the Obama administration will be "creative" in dealing with the issue of bonuses paid to American International Group employees but said the law must be respected. Lawrence Summers, interviewed on CNBC television, also said the White House is seeking a method for dealing with failed institutions that has been missing in the current financial crisis. "We are going to be pushing very hard for a so-called resolution regime, a system that will enable the government to intervene when a big financial company gets in trouble in the future...