TARP inspector general says Bush administration specifically considered and approved AIG bonuses.

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

TARP inspector general says Bush administration specifically considered and approved AIG bonuses.

Bloomberg News reports that Neil Barofsky, inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), told the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee today that the Bush administration “specifically contemplated” paying bonuses to AIG employees in its November agreement to provide federal bailout funds to the failing insurance giant:

The TARP contract between AIG and Treasury “specifically contemplated the payment of bonuses and retention payments to AIG employees, including AIG’s senior partners,” Barofsky said.

Yesterday, AIG CEO Edward Liddy testified that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke approved these bonuses, saying that Federal Reserve representatives attend AIG’s “various meetings on strategy and they have the ability to weigh in — either yea or nay — on anything that we decide.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aBwUb_K6GQ7s

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/19/bush-approved-aig-bonuses/

[xultar]

1. It's about GODDANMED TIME.. Fucking Joe Scumbag kept getting the tarp and 2k9 Stimulus mixed up.

Everyone tweet this to Joe Scum. He uses Twitter a lot.

[Butch350]

22. Please don't lump scumbags to Joe Burro....

...it makes scumbags look bad!

[Christa]

32. True

:fistbump:

I've seen scumbags with lost more class than Joe :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: He is such a bottom feeder.

[Gregorian]

2. Sigh.

[CountAllVotes]

3. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke approved these bonuses

when and why the hell doesn't this awhole resign? I am so sick of Bernanke the know nothing!

:puke:

:mad:

:dem: :kick:

[Gregorian]

5. I must have it wrong. I thought Bernake came off quite well on 60 Minutes.

Maybe I'm missing something. He seemed like the quintessential person for the job.

[CountAllVotes]

7. just because he has a Ph.D. and is a student of the depression

doesn't necessarily give him any credibility whatsoever. Don't be fooled!

He is nothing but a left over * tool!

:kick:

[Gregorian]

11. I'll buy that. But his explanations made a lot of common sense.

He explained what should have happened during the great depression, and stated that he would loan funds to banks in order to avoid that.

Bush appointee does speak volumes. I honestly thought it may have been one of Bush's only good moves. DU always straightens me out.

[cap]

12. bernanke's unpublished book about the depression

states that FDR's attempts to revive the economy were fundamentally flawed -- that you can't use a government stimulus to pull an economy out of recession. I will try and find the link to this.

[Gregorian]

16. OK. And that would exempt the FDIC funds.

Damn. It's so easy to be fooled. Being an intelligent citizen takes more than just a little work. It's a job. No wonder it's so easy for a democracy to fail. And given time, the greedy and ideologues get that much keener.

So again it comes back to whether or not the bailout is more of a ransom than a fix.

[No Elephants]

55. How about both? Maybe it's not either/or?

[stlsaxman]

48. One wonders how Bernanke got his Ph.D. if his dissertation went unpublished...

isn't awarding of a doctorate depending on publishing? maybe his dissertation was never published because it was WRONG and just because he paid full tuition he was "awarded" his title.

:shrug:

[The Second Stone]

67. Most PhD theses are unpublished

Copies might be made on a photocopier, but publication is majorly expensive. Most academic papers published in journals are much shorter than a PhD thesis.

I'd rather have Bernake than Greenspan, who I always thought was a complete right wing tool. Bernake at least understands depression economics, even if he doesn't have the details correct. Greenspan knew less than most DUers about economics. The man was a total tool and creep.

I hope that Bernake does resign shortly, because we really need to get our people in there. The Federal Reserve has been controlled by the right wing since the 70s, and we need to get better educated people who are not beholden to the right wing and wall street crowds.

[JDPriestly]

40. In the Great Depression, we were the great creditor nation.

We had a strong manufacturing base and did not have to import everything from garlic to steel as we do today.

We need to cut our financial sector down to size. We need to rebuild our manufacturing base so that is is matched in its proportion to our financial sector. We need to produce things that we can export so that we can be a part of the world market.

We need to go on a debt reduction program that includes building up our economy internally and cutting back on investments abroad. China and India have strong manufacturing bases. They don't need our aid. We need their markets.

We need to produce things so that we, as a nation, including the employers in our nation, have the money to pay ordinary people wages. The financial industry's cure-all: Increase credit and loan people money. That's like saying to an alcoholic who has hit rock bottom: what you need is another drink.

No more living off credit we can't repay. It doesn't work. Sooner or later you have to pay the piper, and it really hurts.

Yes to the stimulus plan that will improve the electricity grid so that we can switch to energy sources that give us energy independence.

Yes to the stimulus plan that will build fast rail so that we don't have to burn fossil fuels to visit our families over the holidays and so that, in the future, travel will be affordable for more people.

Yes to more and better schools and more money for science education.

Yes to rebuilding America's industry.

Yes to enforcing unfair competition and antitrust laws. Yes to breaking up companies too big to fail and those that buy up whole industries, the suppliers of the industries as well as the customers of the industries.

Yes to helping small businesses innovate and compete with the monsters like Walmart and similar market behemoths.

Yes to free, fair trade for ordinary people. No to domination of government and commerce by the current elite that controls most of the power and wealth.

Yes to becoming an independent nation with at the very least a viable trade balance.

[Gregorian]

66. None of that is possible without huge sacrifices.

Ones we aren't willing to make.

I spent my life watching the manufacturing base. It was ironic that just as I graduated from machine tool technology school, they auctioned off all of their equipment. There are a lot of brilliant minds in this country, as I discovered when I was competing against them in engineering university. But it's the country as a whole that seems to be making the direction in which the country goes.

I will say one thing that I now believe is at the bottom of it all. Resources.

What I see happening is a ratcheting down of human conditions and quality of life. And it is based on population. Population increases scarcity. It creates it by virtue of altering the ratio between people and the fruits which the planet has to offer.

As India and China begin their modern lifestyles, we are going to be forced to either wage war or decide to match their pace. And by pace I mean wages. It's not good news. I have nothing but bad news. Sorry.

[No Elephants]

54. Not only Bernanke.

[corpseratemedia]

4. there is nothing that *sh has touched (or done) that isn't

a filthy smelly pile of corrupt

[jeff30997]

18. So true.

That Primate is some kind of reversed King Midas.

[barbtries]

33. welcome to du

:hi:

[corpseratemedia]

38. thank you!

:hi: :thumbsup:

[wackywaggin]

6. The whole Bush /Cheney cabal are traitors

of the people of the US.

:smoke:

[underpants]

8. No No no it was Dodd! haven't you seen CNN congratulating themselves

for doing some form of journalism?

[TheEuclideanOne]

42. Which was it?

I am curious to know because the Dodd story is making the rounds and hopefully this story will make the rounds. They can't both be true. I honestly do not know, but would love to find out exactly who I can point my finger at. I do remember a story around the time that the TARP was originally announced that the Bush administration, in the 13th hour, added something that seemed awfully familiar sounding to this particular topic. Looking for details.....

[No Elephants]

56. They can both be true. Bush approves the retention bonuses. Maybe Bush even

approved the contracts for the retention bonuses.

Paulson runs around to the Sunday talk shows, like Chicken Little, flapping his mouth and saying the entire world economy is doomed unless the TARP is approved within a couple of days. (It wasn't done in a couple of days, but it took an amazingly short time.) I remember one of the talk show hosts asking him specifically about compensation limits (which question I am now beginning to suspect was planted.)

Paulson replied, "No conditions whatever. We don't have the time."

Now, Dodd limits compensation, but people have a binding contract for a bonus approved in advance by Dummya himself. So, if the contract is breached on the say so of the U.S., the employees would probably sue both AIG and the U.S. So, someone tells this to Dodd and he withdraws his language limiting executive comp, to protect the US from lawsuits when it is in such critical condition in so many other ways.

[thereismore]

9. Bush left a turd on the ground and they blame Obama for stepping in it. nt

[hay rick]

35. LOL

Best explanation of media coverage of TARP, AIG, etc. I've seen to date

[bdamomma]

53. when has the repig party ever owned up to their crimes. Never.

[No Elephants]

57. Bingo. And the even bigger turd than the bonuses? The economy they left us with. One is a

hundred million dollar item. The other is going to be at least a 7 trillion dollar item. (That's my personal guess. Could be more; could be less.)

Focus on the big picture, folks. You're missing the forest for the Shrub.

[apnu]

10. I guss this will show up in KO's (Still) Bushed segment. (nt)

[stillcool]

13. anything that happened before..

January 20th is of no importance. And..the fault for stripping the cap provision out of the bill lies with Obama, as he said yesterday. So, blame him for everything, and be done with it.

[Lorien]

23. But blame 9/11 on President Clinton

because after eight months in office BushCo was still not responsible for anything that happened on their watch.

[RiverStone]

14. But will the MSM report the truth....?

It's more fun for them to rag on our current prez.

[gordianot]

19. About as close as you might get is Jon Stewart.

Only then might they report on the reaction to a Comedy Show.

[NewJeffCT]

20. Hopefully, Olbermann and/or Maddow will pick it up

at least giving the story a modicum of legs.

[tom_paine]

36. No. End of story.

[No Elephants]

51. Not to worry. DU will keep this story going, whether it needs to or not.

[KansDem]

15. Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and the rest had the decency to *leave* their scenes of their crimes

But, noooo...not the Bushes. They lie and steal and just stand around smirking about it!

[Amonester]

17. and nobody does anything "effective" about it!

maybe the bushes managed to look "cowboy" enuf...

[No Elephants]

58. Well, after all, President Obama deserves Dummya's silence. That, no doubt, is

why Dummya did not take responsiblity for this, but let Obama do that instead.

[nyc 4 Biden]

21. "Troubled Asset Relief Program"

Is it the Assets or the Program that is "Troubled" ?

That name cracks me up.

[AlbertCat]

30. Like "Operation Enduring Freedom". Boy...they're enduring it alright.

Or even
American International Group.

Is it American or International? Maybe they can rename it Xed.

[florida08]

24. damn

and here they had me disbelieving the new president because of CNN reporting. In this case it wouldn't matter what was in the stimulus because it was already a done deal. Good job kpete. Glad I checked back in today..this thing has had many of us upset.

[Cass]

25. I am so confused. Did Congress have any idea about this when it was drawing up the TARP legislation?

When Paulson presented the Bushco list of demands to Congress way in the beginning, was this bonus issue included in the document? Am I correct in thinking that Congress had the ability to limit bonuses in the TARP legislation but instead chose to acquiesce to Bushco demands due to the pressure Dodd referenced? And who pressured Dodd anyway? Do we know? Why are they all acting surprised like they just found out about it??

How could no one know about this until now if it is in the TARP contract? Didn't anyone besides Bernanke and Paulson read the TARP contract?

[No Elephants]

59. Please see my Post 56.

[Peacetrain]

26. Thank you kpete,, I was trying to tell people yesterday to take a

breath and see what comes out in a day or two.. because all of this started in the bush administration.. and no one can begin to get a handle on everything they did in 6 weeks, or even 6 months or a year..

[JohnWxy]

27. "You've done a helluva job here: Brownie/ Paulie,/ Greenspan"/ et al ...

typical Republican stewardship of public funds.


REcommended!

[LynneSin]

28. Of course he did

no shocker here

[burythehatchet]

29. Aw SHIT. Too late. I just saw Chris Dodd's head being used as a soccer ball.

[DissedByBush]

47. Rightfully so

Dodd gets more money from AIG than anyone else.

We EXPECT Bush and cronies to pay off their benefactors. We were told not to expect this from the new Democratic rulers.

[zbdent]

31. was this guy just waiting until Obama said "I will take responsibility"???

and thus, the ReRushlicans can sit there and say "Well, it's Obama's fault. He took responsibility for it."

[No Elephants]

60. Well, Bush did say that Obama deserved Bush's silence. Well, now we know why Bush wanted

to remain silent. So Obama could take the blame.

[stubtoe]

34. NO WONDER I haven't heard much about "the bonuses" in the media today, and

how much trouble they're gonna be for the Obama administration, blah blah blah. Turns out Junior laid this AIG, and we can't hold HIS feet to the fire for anything now can we.

:mad:

[Liberal_Christian]

37. What gets me is that you'll never hear these dipshit conservatives get angry about this.

Funny how Obama gives a fraction of the amount to banks than Bush and he wants to regulate the distribution, also unlike Bush, but NOW is when you hear these self-righteous, John Wayne-wanna be, Rush-following, ill-informed inbreeds feeling "wronged" because it happens to be a black democrat in office while they were completely SILENT when Bush was doing this but worse. Like slavery, segregation, child labor, unsafe work environments, unclean food and water, and every other REgressive social stance justified via Conservative ideology; I have no doubt the Right Wing thought pattern will join them in history as bull-shit-we-learned-from but sadly I think it will not happen in my lifetime, but it will happen. Just like finding out you can't cut somebody's arm and bleed a disease out of their body, someday the human race will see the Conservative mindset as the absurdity it really is.

[960]

39. Great. Now is it okay with the Obama cheerleaders if we criitcize the

AIG bonuses?

[Baltoman991]

45. You, without

a doubt, have the right wing meme down. Now just call us worshippers and get it over with.

[960]

46. wtf

[No Elephants]

62. Because anyone who does not agree with the knee jerk reaction on this must be

an Obama cheerleader. Now, there's a big fat ole false dichotomy.

Please see Post 56, above. Also please try to find an intelligent, nonpartisan article about the thread of deep, lengthy, worldwide Depression Obama's been trying to avoid, then read it.

[mdmc]

41. Of course they did. Why wouldn't they? Why did we go along with it?

:shrug:

[No Elephants]

50. We were trying to avoid a global depression that would have made the 1930's look shallow and brief.

[Life Long Dem]

43. And we did what the intention was. So what's the problem?

[valerief]

44. Bush = TARP. nt

[No Elephants]

49. I posted this on another thread yesterday, but wth. TARP was brought to you by the letter (R).

While Obama and McCain were still running against each other, Paulson made the rounds of the talking heads shows, insisting DIRE financial consequencces would ensue for the whole world unless Congress passed the TARP Monday or Tuesday with NO conditions, including on executive compensation.

[No Elephants]

52. Funny. Obama said, "I'm the President. I'll take responsibilty." Who knew he was taking

responsibility for what Bushco did?

This puts Obama's concern about lawsuits in a whole new light. Maybe they would have sued not only AIG but the U.S. and by U.S., I mean us.

[redqueen]

61. Let's see if *this* story is beat to death by the M$M.

I'll be over here holding my breath, waiting.

[No Elephants]

63. The MSM? Wanna bet at least half the people here will be blaming Obama and

Dodd ten years from now?

[redqueen]

64. Ten years from now?

You're such an optimist.

[No Elephants]

65. You caught me. I can't help myself. Just an incurable Pollyanna, I am.