Financial

Just in case you missed it on Nov. 14, Carol Leonnig of washingtonpost.com reported that a two-sentence paragraph buried inside a quarterly financial report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed AIG's plans to open its deferred compensation bank for bonus payments for more than 6,000 employees to the tune of... $503 million!

There came push back from watchdog New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who demanded AIG disclose the company compensation plans. No further news on that request. A forum on politicalgroove.com expressed no-holds-barred thoughts about the AIG bonus.

Then on Nov. 26, Hugh Son of bloomburg.com reported that AIG will still pay 130 managers "cash awards" to stay with the firm, including $3 million to retirement services chief Jay Wintrob.

Personally, I don't care how AIG spins and renames their BONUS, DEFERRED COMPENSATION, RETENTION PAY after a quarterly loss of $25 BILLION and then a restructured US government BAILOUT of $152.5 BILLION it is plainly WRONG every way you look at it. I suggest that to save AIG the company must slash spending to the absolute minimum necessary to conduct business. Pay to keep the doors open, lights on and employees employed. Involve the employees in rebuilding AIG. If some employees leave, good riddance. Hire new people who want to make AIG into a new and better company. This is a history making opportunity to DO THE RIGHT THING.

Resources for this post:

money.cnn.com

blownmortgage.com

boston.com

UPDATE:

Unknown to me when I wrote my post on Nov. 30, Jonathan Tasini on Nov 28, posted a similar post titled AIG Pulls Fast One -- Cash Awards Going To Managers on huffingtonpost.com. Another voice pointing out the hypocrisy of AIG and also the collusion of the big news media in not reporting the story.