Thank you for ruining the economy, here are my tax dollars because you deserve a reward.
Reporting from North Carolina and Laguna Beach -- American International Group, the "too big to fail" Wall Street insurer propped up by pledges of $170 billion in government aid, is giving $165 million in bonuses and retention pay to employees with the grudging consent of the Obama administration, government and company sources said Saturday.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner had contacted AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy on Wednesday to object after learning that the payments were due today to members of AIG Financial Products, a division that had created trillions of dollars in murky financial obligations.
AIG and administration sources said Saturday that after going over the insurer's legal obligations, Geithner agreed that the employees might win punitive damages if their contracts were broken.
An even bigger problem, they added, was that financial products employees who are denied payments could quit and that AIG's losses -- the insurer took the deepest bath in red ink in American history last quarter, losing $61.7 billion -- could spiral enormously if the only people who understand the company's convoluted dealings are not around to "unwind" the damage they have caused.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-aig1...0,5105807.storychrist