Top 10 List: 16th March, 2009
Everyone’s talking about AIG. And the outrage over $165 million in bonuses paid to executives at the company. This was after AIG received close to $175 billion in federal bailout money and is at the heart of a global financial crisis. So all the brouhaha is understandable. No one has any clue why these bonuses are being paid.
Luckily for us, AIG CEO Edward Liddy was able to clarify some of these questions. Apparently, there are plenty of good reasons why AIG has to pay its executives these bonuses on time.
In Ed Liddy’s own words, the Top 10 reasons why the bonuses had to be promptly paid with taxpayer money-
10. “Tim Geithner owes you guys more in unpaid back-taxes. Deal with him first, will ya?”.
9. “The Execs threatened to defect to the Third Front”.
8. “Its paid out in Canadian dollars. Its a lot less than you think, really”.
7. “We took away their jets. At least give them this.”
6. “If we don’t do this, then the terrorists win.”
5. “We need to do this to retain the best and brightest talent, who just lost us 61 billion in Q1″.
4. “Yes, we can”.
3. “You cant hate us more than Bernie Madoff, surely?”
2. “Nawaz Sharif threatened to march into the Arabian Sea with his supporters”.
1. “AIG Execs are taxpayers too”.
“We need to do this to retain the best and brightest talent, who just lost us 61 billion in Q1″
ROTFL! This has to be one of your best
Right up there with Bernanke and Santa 
Lucas
March 17, 2009 at 1:34 pm
@Lucas and Sanjana: Thanks!
@Utah1234: This topic has been discussed to death all over. So I’ll just say I broadly agree with you and let it rest at that.
@Karthi: Of course I did! The Daily Show’s back in the limelight after sliding behind the Colbert Report in recent times
vettiguy
March 21, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I believe the bonus payout excesses at AIG are just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening with the other Wall Street bailouts including Bank of America. Working productive Americans are bailing out the same crooks that destroyed our economy along with 45% of the wealth in the world. Now the American taxpayers and our posterity will be forced to live a far lower standard of living with reduced prosperity and opportunities due to the accumulated national debt to fund the bailouts and once again we will pay the price.
Washington has bailed out the banks, Wall Street & their Washington special interests and much of the cost is added to the national debt to by paid by this and future generations while real estate and investments continue to fall. I believe Washington plans to monetize the debt in future years while they tax and destroy our remaining wealth by depreciating the dollar.
To stop this wealth attack, the Campaign to Cancel the Washington National Debt By 12/21/2012 Constitutional Amendment is beginning now in the U.S. See: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67594690498&ref=ts
utah1234
March 17, 2009 at 4:04 pm
haha #1 is hilarious
Sanjana
March 17, 2009 at 5:28 pm
LOL @ 4 & 6 …
hope u saw TDS interview: Jon Stewart vs Cramer … one of THE Best interviews in a millennium one would say!
hkarthi
March 21, 2009 at 7:06 pm