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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@aol.com href="mailto:tanstl@aol.com">David Sladky</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=undisclosed-recipients:
href="mailto:undisclosed-recipients:">undisclosed-recipients:</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, February 08, 2010 8:03 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Groundhogs Day on Wall Street</DIV></DIV>
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<H1 class=western>Groundhogs Day on Wall Street</H1>
<DIV>Submitted by Mary Bottari on February 5, 2010 - 6:43am. </DIV>
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<DIV>On the day that Punxsutawney Phil emerged to predict a long hard winter,
Americans picked up the newspaper to read that <A
href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=AIG" target=_blank>AIG</A>, the
bankrupt insurance giant, was going to pay out $100 million in bonuses to its
failed financial products division. <A
href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Kenneth_Feinberg"
target=_blank>Kenneth Feinberg</A>, President Obama’s pay czar, announced that
these were “grandfathered” retention payments and that the unit had taken a $20
million dollar reduction in bonuses. </DIV>
<DIV>Like Bill Murray in the classic film Groundhog Day, we are being forced to
live this day over again. Wasn't about this time last year when <A
href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=President_Obama"
target=_blank>President Obama</A> said: "This is a corporation that finds itself
in financial distress due to recklessness and greed. Under these circumstances,
it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses,
much less $165 million in extra pay. I mean, how do they justify this outrage to
the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" But this year, the President
was strangely silent. </DIV>
<DIV>Let’s pause and recap. AIG is a <A
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_bank" target=_blank>zombie firm</A>
kept on life support by a “public option” that is not available to bankrupt
citizens. The financial products division is the group of rocket scientists
whose risky bets on credit default swaps crashed the global economy and led to
the largest single bailout in American history: $183 billion dollars. </DIV>
<DIV>How much of this money has AIG paid back? Zero. How much were those bonuses
again? $100 million. How many criminal indictments have been issued? Zero. And
we’re supposed to be happy that the pay czar negotiated a haircut?</DIV>
<DIV>Worse, AIG executives have no shame. They have not paid back the bonuses
they promised to return last year after a public hue and cry. Moreover, the new
CEO Robert Benmoche, has pushed back against New York Attorney General <A
href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Andrew_Cuomo"
target=_blank>Andrew Cuomo</A>’s efforts to keep bonus payments public. In a
communication to AIG staff described by <A
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aql08HsdehF8"
target=_blank>Bloomberg News</A>, Benmosche said of Cuomo: “The worst thing that
will ever happen to him is when he and I meet in the room and I close the door.”
Cuomo was “unbelievably wrong” for demanding AIG employees return their bonuses
and promising to publish the names of staff who didn’t comply. This from the man
taxpayers pay $7 million a year (a salary approved by Feinberg). The man
currently overseeing the death spiral of his firm's stock.</DIV>
<DIV>How do we get out of this endless loop? First, Feinberg should be fired.
His role has always been tenuous, and after the latest bonus bonanza, his job
description is a farce. Second, Obama has to get serious in his efforts to "repo
the dough" from the bankers. He has proposed a time-limited tax of $90 billion
over ten years to cover the cost of the TARP bailout, but this recoups only a
portion of the bailout funds that the government has has spent, and does not
come close to compensating taxpayers for the trillions of dollars in lost
savings, jobs, homes and postponed futures. </DIV>
<DIV>Senator <A href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tom_Harkin"
target=_blank>Tom Harkin</A> (D-Iowa) and Rep. <A
href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Peter_DeFazio"
target=_blank>Peter DeFazio</A> (D-OR) are getting serious. Harkin has a bill
that would apply a tiny tax of .25 percent on every stock and derivative trade.
The tax would tamp down on Wall Street high-volume, high-speed financial
speculation and at the same time recoup serious money($100 billion a year, $1
trillion over ten years) that can be put to work creating jobs and rebuilding
America. </DIV>
<DIV>With 27 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, we are in a big hole
and it is going to take big ideas and, unfortunately, big money to climb out of
it. I would prefer that these funds come out of AIG's pocket, and not mine.
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