Let 'Em FAIL!

Let 'em fail, for God's sake!

(I wrote this in 2009 but it's just as applicable today, if dated)

Who's going to pay for the AIG bonus scandal and the remainder of their bailout? You, and you're already in for $170 bil. The prez just floated a trial balloon for taxing health care benefits. No, really, I couldn't make that up. Trial balloons don't always float, of course, and they're seldom attributable, but watch for this one.

Your meager health benefits, taxed when you can least afford to pay.

AIG bonuses paid when we can least afford to pay them.

Does that sound fair to you?

* * * * *

If your husband is KIA in Iraq you get a $100K "death gratuity". If he cheated the nation out of $170 bil he gets a share of $170,000,000 in bonuses just this year!

This is what a soldier's widow gets:
$100,000

Here's how much Merrill Lynch boss Thain spent to redecorate his office:
$1,200,000

Here's the bonus Thain asked for in Dec.
$10,000,000

When Merrill Lynch lost $27 bil last year, here's what their top investment banker made:
$34,800,000

This is what AIG's current bonus plan looks like:
$170,000,000

This is what AIG's bailout looks like to date:
$170,000,000,000

Do you get it yet?

* * * * *

The solution is: Let 'em fail. Stop the bleeding, cut our losses. End the entire sham operation. Force 'em into liquidating bankruptcy TODAY just like you would any other outfit that isn't paying claims and creditors.

The advantages:

AIG ends the bonus scam with court approval
AIG winds up ALL of its bad business lines and guarantees
AIG sells off ALL valuable business lines and assets
We end all new liabilities
We see an eventual end to this giant Ponzi scheme

"But the execs might just quit!" This is a bad thing? Besides, where are they gonna go? It's a bad economy remember? Not much call for executives who just lost a quarter-tril. Consultants to the Russian mob, that's about it.

If they want to stay AND they have something to contribute to the recovery, let CEO Libby keep a few on and pay them something reasonable. Otherwise, don't let the door...

This is going to happen eventually. The only reason it hasn't happened yet is that executives are keeping the AIG zombies moving in order to line their own pockets. They've been lined enough already, and at your expense.

This solution has a lot of pain for a lot of people and AIG is to blame for all of it. The alternative is at least as painful and has no end in sight.

Cowboys shot broke-leg horses, even their favorites. It's time to put down the dying AIG mule. It's our country that is too big to fail, not AIG.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Pogo, thank you Walt Kelly

What I meant was

Tim Geitner, TimmyG here, had a few words to say regarding bailouts but only after he oversaw the biggest gummint bailout in our history.

* * * * *

Fox Business today tells us that TimmyG has re-thought the whole bail-out thing. Bailouts should only be offered to solvent firms and only as a last resort, he says now. Yep. He told Congress today that it turns out that loaning money to people who can't pay it back isn't a good idea. He says in part: 

"Any firm that puts itself in a position where it cannot survive without special assistance from the government must face the consequences of failure"

He also testified that

"We cannot put taxpayers in the position of paying for the losses of large private financial institutions" and "the government did not want to provide a false impression that such firms would be protected from failure by the government in times of stress."

Didn't we already know that? Sure we did, but there must be an exception when the borrowers are Timmy's friends and the lender is his old employer and it's lending under his direction. Try searching for TIMMYG in this blog and see what we have written so many times.

* * * * *

What Else Do You Need To Know?

HERE!  Getch'er free money HERE!

God help us, there's going to be another gummint bailout.  Prez and Congress can't quite figure out how much it should be, $1.2tril or $1.4.  Can't get closer than 200 billion, that is.

I wrote extensively about the last bailout, back in 2009.  For instance, and please excuse my immodesty:

What Else Do You Need To Know?

We tax all the others and pass the revenue on to you

AIG... you remember, the guys who got $170 bil of your money for bailouts in the last seven months, those guys? American Insurance Group.

The guys who won't tell Congress where the $170 bil went?

The guys who won't tell us who their "trading partners" are, the trading partners that the Wall Street Journal reports got $50 bil of that money, trading partners that include Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch?

The guys who already spent a bunch of bailout money on a party for their executives?

The guys who just got a comittment for another $30 bil of your money for bailouts?

Those guys?

They're going to pay out $100 mil in bonuses! 

Have to, they say. Bozo bonuses.

What else do you need to know about the bailouts? If this was a rational world there would never be another government bailout of anyone for anything.

NEVER!

Words fail me.

What's gonna be different this time?

Politico, two days ago:  "Even by Washington standards, a trillion dollars is a lot of money. It could fund the Environmental Protection Agency for 120 years, or the Securities and Exchange Commission for 550 years, or 20 end-to-end border walls with Mexico. It could buy every American adult four new iPhone 11 Pros. The last time the U.S. economy imploded, after the 2008 financial crisis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned then-President-Elect Barack Obama’s team that if he wanted to pass a stimulus bill, he shouldn’t even bother proposing anything that required the T-word."

But President Donald Trump is about to do just that, and suddenly a 13-digit ask no longer seems so controversial.

I HAVE to recommend the Politico article.  It's even better if you read some of my 2009 blog posts first.

Talking To God

Are you really God?

Don’t waste my time

I thought you’d have a crown and a robe

I’ve heard that before

Is there a heaven?

Don’t think small

How old are you

I was here before time

What’s Heaven like?

Everything you ever loved

Will I go there

Your place is already reserved

Are you here to fix things?

I made all things perfectly

So many things are broken

I’m not your building superintendent

Why are there bad people?

Free will and bad choices  

Will they be punished

Yes, they didn’t get The Word

Do animals love?

Of course

Which ones

Mostly my mammals

Why are you so ordinary?

Can you make a sun

I believe in you

There is work for you to do

Goodbye?

Yes, but I’ll see you tomorrow

I’ve got a lot of questions

Yes, I know