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Old 03-26-2009, 05:58 PM   #1
Blastoise
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To: Liddy, Congress FROM: AIG exec RE: suck my dick

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/op...ntis.html?_r=1

Quote:
The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G.

DEAR Mr. Liddy,

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context:

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

You and I have never met or spoken to each other, so I’d like to tell you about myself. I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute’s generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream.

I started at this company in 1998 as an equity trader, became the head of equity and commodity trading and, a couple of years before A.I.G.’s meltdown last September, was named the head of business development for commodities. Over this period the equity and commodity units were consistently profitable — in most years generating net profits of well over $100 million. Most recently, during the dismantling of A.I.G.-F.P., I was an integral player in the pending sale of its well-regarded commodity index business to UBS. As you know, business unit sales like this are crucial to A.I.G.’s effort to repay the American taxpayer.

The profitability of the businesses with which I was associated clearly supported my compensation. I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.

I have the utmost respect for the civic duty that you are now performing at A.I.G. You are as blameless for these credit default swap losses as I am. You answered your country’s call and you are taking a tremendous beating for it.

But you also are aware that most of the employees of your financial products unit had nothing to do with the large losses. And I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us. I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn’t defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.

My guess is that in October, when you learned of these retention contracts, you realized that the employees of the financial products unit needed some incentive to stay and that the contracts, being both ethical and useful, should be left to stand. That’s probably why A.I.G. management assured us on three occasions during that month that the company would “live up to its commitment” to honor the contract guarantees.

That may be why you decided to accelerate by three months more than a quarter of the amounts due under the contracts. That action signified to us your support, and was hardly something that one would do if he truly found the contracts “distasteful.”

That may also be why you authorized the balance of the payments on March 13.

At no time during the past six months that you have been leading A.I.G. did you ask us to revise, renegotiate or break these contracts — until several hours before your appearance last week before Congress.

I think your initial decision to honor the contracts was both ethical and financially astute, but it seems to have been politically unwise. It’s now apparent that you either misunderstood the agreements that you had made — tacit or otherwise — with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, various members of Congress and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, or were not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds.

You’ve now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust.

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.

Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.

The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.

So what am I to do? There’s no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree.

That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need.

On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients.

This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear.

Mr. Liddy, I wish you success in your commitment to return the money extended by the American government, and luck with the continued unwinding of the company’s diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I’ll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what’s happened this past week I can’t remain much longer — there is too much bad blood. I’m not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I’ll leave under my own power and will not need to be “shoved out the door.”

Sincerely,

Jake DeSantis
Obviously, I'd take all of this with a grain of salt: there's a bit of a "there's no way my shit stinks" tone to the article and without knowing much about AIG's corporate hierarchy I can't say if Mr. DeSantis was in a position to actually know more than he lets on.

But I posted this not because of the hilarious amount of butthurt it prompted in the NYT mailbag ("I DRIVE GARBAGE TRUCKS FOR A LIVING WHY DON'T I GET PAID TEN MILLION") but because it pokes at something that's been bugging me over the past several months of this economic crisis: most of our elected officials don't seem interested in finding actual solutions to the problems at hand. I first started feeling this way during the initial auto industry bailouts, where Congressmen seemed less interested in how these companies might possibly stop bleeding cash out of their pores and more interested in haranguing witless US auto execs over flying on private jets on the dime of corporations hemorrhaging money. This is in contrast to US representatives who travel on the dime of a government hemorrhaging money, but I digress.

And then came the whole $165 million bonus scandal. Weeks of airtime has been dedicated to the controversy, with the obligatory populist nerd rage and Washington proposing harmful kneejerk legislation in response. And through it all I couldn't help but think: we're bitching about $165 million when we're on the hook for $170 billion for AIG? A number that will almost certainly increase by billions?

Not only is $165 million--while certainly not an insignificant amount of cash--utterly trivial in the face of a company bailout that will probably cross $250 billion when it's all said and done, it's a puddle of piss in the ocean of the entire bailout's total economic cost:



I find the above graph humorous and depressing in equal measure.

But anyway...why? Not that I really need to ask.

Republicans have decided to do their best impression of the Democrats post-November 2004: piss and bitch as loud as possible, and when things inevitably go south be positioned so that they can claim they were hating it before it was cool. What baffles me is that we're starting to see this from Democrats: do they really want to put the White House's (and by extension, the Democratic party's mandate) stimulus/bailout/makes Julian fries package up as a sacrifice for some cheap political points? I guess so.

I can't really fault Obama on this one: the general vibe I get out of the White House is that they present a nominal front of being outraged while really thinking this entire song and dance is a fucking retarded rodeo of stupid. The White House also seems interested in solving the actual problems at hand: about the only thing I get out of Congressional committees these days is that they're staging mock executions of whatever witless Treasury department official/business executive walks in to sate the masses who blame CDOs for their economic woes and not the fact that they took out equity on their home to buy rims for their escalade.

But then, I'm not a politician. I'm obviously not smart enough to realize that pissing off the people you need to fix the problem is a suitable substitute for actually doing something.

Thoughts?
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Old 03-26-2009, 06:59 PM   #2
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The best part is the Republicans are trying to get their own bill passed, filled with tax cuts to the rich, more deregulation, and lots of other crap that got us into this mess.. to get us out of this mess. Awesome. 10/10
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Old 03-26-2009, 07:18 PM   #3
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The best part is the Republicans are trying to get their own bill passed, filled with tax cuts to the rich, more deregulation, and lots of other crap that got us into this mess.. to get us out of this mess. Awesome. 10/10
Which is different from the Democrats using the crisis as a Trojan horse to get their pet projects approved because...?

We're totally fucked at this point, the only difference is figuring out who might give us the best reacharound.
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Old 03-26-2009, 07:21 PM   #4
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Well it's not like the Dems are a becon of hope, ponies and rainbows atm. Everyone's a douchebag, welcome to politics etc etc.
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Old 03-26-2009, 08:34 PM   #5
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Well it's not like the Dems are a becon of hope, ponies and rainbows atm. Everyone's a douchebag, welcome to politics etc etc.
This wasn't the Change(tm) I was promised.
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Old 03-28-2009, 12:48 AM   #6
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I actually debated this very bill in a practice debate earlier this morning as government. The $165M really is a drop in the bucket compared to the huge (lol) surplus package but even if the executives are being scapegoated, it's more important for Congress to remain on the populist platform...since doing so puts them on the same side as Obama, and crossing Obama while he is still popular is a good way to arm your opponents during mid-term's.

Was this an open letter or leaked memo?
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Old 04-28-2009, 05:36 PM   #7
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What proof do any of us really have, though, that this isn't just 1984 coming to life? I mean, the media and Capitol Hill have both spent the last year screaming at the people about Chinese melamine, China taking over the world, home mortgage crises, automotive industry collapse, "the bailout," and much more. The latest in the scare list is swine flu, which is the same as bird flu, which is the same as flu flu: because influenza's life cycle has always been about birds-to-swine-to-man.

Oh, and let's not forget the peanut butter salmonella outbreak. How many people died from that? Less than died all year from West Nile. How many died from West Nile? Less than died all year from the common cold. And yet the people in this country behaved like sheep and I reaped the benefits, purchasing three jars of Peter Pan for the price of one. And as a long-time peanut butter eater, I knew the store wasn't just yanking my chain: this was really 3-for-1 clearance! Why? Because 50 people got sick. 50 people out of over 300,000,000. If you're going to ask Grandma to avoid eating peanut butter lest she die from salmonella poisoning, you may as well ask her to shut herself away from the outside world -- it's a heck of a lot more infected than the inside of a contaminated peanut butter jar.

I think the government in our country, and maybe the entire world, is trying to scare people into a mentality that the sky is always falling but Big Brother will be there to make things right -- when in reality, you don't see Americans driving any less, eating any less, gaming any less, drinking any less, smoking any less, ... do you? I don't. Life today seems identical to life last April. And that seems identical to life the April before that. The only thing that's changed is the song the media's been singing. If it's not Israel and Palestine then it's African warlords. If it's not global warming then it's solar flares. If it's not Martha Stewart then its Bernie Maddox. Really, what has changed, people? Have you ACTUALLY SEEN the effects of this so-called "economic meltdown"?

I honestly haven't, but if you have, then by all means put me in my place.
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Last edited by Vran; 04-28-2009 at 05:39 PM.
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Old 04-28-2009, 06:05 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by Vran View Post
What proof do any of us really have, though, that this isn't just 1984 coming to life? I mean, the media and Capitol Hill have both spent the last year screaming at the people about Chinese melamine, China taking over the world, home mortgage crises, automotive industry collapse, "the bailout," and much more. The latest in the scare list is swine flu, which is the same as bird flu, which is the same as flu flu: because influenza's life cycle has always been about birds-to-swine-to-man.

Oh, and let's not forget the peanut butter salmonella outbreak. How many people died from that? Less than died all year from West Nile. How many died from West Nile? Less than died all year from the common cold. And yet the people in this country behaved like sheep and I reaped the benefits, purchasing three jars of Peter Pan for the price of one. And as a long-time peanut butter eater, I knew the store wasn't just yanking my chain: this was really 3-for-1 clearance! Why? Because 50 people got sick. 50 people out of over 300,000,000. If you're going to ask Grandma to avoid eating peanut butter lest she die from salmonella poisoning, you may as well ask her to shut herself away from the outside world -- it's a heck of a lot more infected than the inside of a contaminated peanut butter jar.

I think the government in our country, and maybe the entire world, is trying to scare people into a mentality that the sky is always falling but Big Brother will be there to make things right -- when in reality, you don't see Americans driving any less, eating any less, gaming any less, drinking any less, smoking any less, ... do you? I don't. Life today seems identical to life last April. And that seems identical to life the April before that. The only thing that's changed is the song the media's been singing. If it's not Israel and Palestine then it's African warlords. If it's not global warming then it's solar flares. If it's not Martha Stewart then its Bernie Maddox. Really, what has changed, people? Have you ACTUALLY SEEN the effects of this so-called "economic meltdown"?

I honestly haven't, but if you have, then by all means put me in my place.
I think you're confusing "super secret government conspiracy to scare us all into complacency" with "24/7 news cycle needing bullshit filler to get ratings."

EDIT PS:

Namedropping 1984 makes you a unique and beautiful snowflake
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Last edited by Blastoise; 04-28-2009 at 06:15 PM.
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Old 04-28-2009, 07:00 PM   #9
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I don't get it. Is 1984 the new Godwin's Law?
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Old 04-28-2009, 07:12 PM   #10
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Graveler

I've seen change from the economic meltdown.

Just not personally.
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Old 04-28-2009, 07:40 PM   #11
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>Is 1984 the new Godwin's Law?
>the new Godwin's Law?
>new
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