The video's a kicker as well, which features President Obama saying how he's "all choked up" about these bonuses. But Martha Zoller at Pajamas Media offers a concise analysis of what's going on after two months of Democratic power:
The Obama administration may once have had solid ground to stand on in its criticism of the Bush financial policies, but no longer. The problem that got us into this mess is still there. The fundamental problems with the housing markets, the credit markets, and the banking system have not been addressed. The administration dealt with what they thought were the easy fixes first, like AIG, and haven’t dealt with the underlying issues. And if you don’t pour the foundation first, the house will not stand.See also, William Jacobson, "The Wheels Are Falling Off the Obama Administration."
I actually hope that the congress, who now owns 80% of AIG, and couldn't run a private (dare I say public) lemonade stand under penalty of death, does go after those who collected contractually obligated bonuses.
ReplyDeleteThe resulting litigation should keep the courts tied up for at least a decade.
And just when will Bawney, Maxine, Chris, and the rest of the congressional cabal, be held to account for their crimes that contributed to the world economic decline?
-Dave
I apologize for the above. I was yapping mindlessly on the phone, and got a little distracted.
ReplyDeleteWhat I was attempting to say was, the actions that congress is threatening to take against those who were given bonuses are specifically prohibited by the Constitution of the United States:
Article 1 Section 9
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
Article 1 Section 10
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
If the government can go after those whose contractual agreements were ironed out long before AIG was essentially nationalized, what is going to prevent this same government from going after you or me in a similar fashion somewhere down the road?
-Dave
The economy is so vast and complex no one person or even group of people can ever hope to understand it. Unfortunately, things will have to simply play themselves out. Obama and his fellow-travelers are so aggorant in thinking they have all the answers to the present problems--answers which are rooted in the alien idealogy of socialism, not the European type, but a far more radical kind. That will, if allowed to continue, destroy the American system of capitalism.
ReplyDeleteThis AIG thing is absolute insanity. The fake outrage and the pointing of the finger at people who have every legal right to the bonuses is sickening. I can't for the life of me understand the mindset that thinks Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are even slightly fit to try to play a part is running this government.
ReplyDeleteThese idiots don't even read the bill they rush through, add the amendment ensuring the bonuses go through, and then want to take it all back through illegal taxation?
It's always about the same: find the offender, call him offender and punish him, so that everyone feels great about it.
ReplyDeleteWhat about punishing those who allowed AIG to because too big to fail? No public company should became this big in my opinion. When "normal" companies make big mistakes, they simply close down and clear the market for those who made smaller of no mistakes. If this big company fails, the state simply have to rescue it.. and that's wrong. The whole "bonuses scandal" is nothing compared to that.
Take care,
Jay