President Obama instructs Geithner to try to prevent AIG bonuses

[BirminghamExaminer]

Excerpt:

n a speech about his plan to aid small businesses by making it easier to apply and receive loans with less fees, President Obama instructed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to do everything that can legally be done to stop AIG from giving out $165 million in bonuses.

Read full story here.

[marketcrazy1]

1. you might think that when

the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES publicly "goes after" a large bailout recipient it would have an effect on the stock price and you would be right............ AIG`s stock is UP 77 percent!!!! WTF!!

[Hoopla Phil]

2. Would you also have him take the bonus of $100.00 that the single mother teller got?

Not all the bonus a bank pays out are to the top execs.

[marketcrazy1]

3. the payouts in question

are the ones going to managers and upper level executives, no one is bitching about incentives ACTUALLY EARNED by lower tier employees... THEY deserve some incentive because THEY contributed to earnings where these high level executives were responsible for ALL the losses....and deserve NOTHING but JAIL!!!!

[sui generis]

8. Okay, as an exec myself let me say this

My compensation includes a deferred income "bonus" minimum at the end of the year - and eventually I have to pay taxes on my contractual compensation no matter what.

There ARE options for how you receive your "bonus" - where and when it is applied, but just like salary there is NO option to not pay the minimum. It's what we agreed my value to the company was worth, predicated on re-proving or exceeding my value-delivery expectation every year.

I do not think we should be paying bonuses that aren't contractually obligated or "performance" bonuses that aren't the absolute minimum stipulated in SOW, if even stipulated.

But those of us who defer income so we can go quarterback for our companies, AND that teller with the $100 bonus, should not be left high and dry because most of the people who have an opinion about this don't have a very nuanced opinion or even knowledge.

It's not black or white.

[denverbill]

4. Yes. When my company lost money, nobody got bonuses, period.

And to compare a teller who had no impact on the company's results to the CEO who was responsible for making the loans and guaranteeing the loans is ridiculous.

[BirminghamExaminer]

6. Not only that but what difference does it make if someone's a single parent?

[Hoopla Phil]

7. For those responding to my point I'll reprint here something from a similar thread.

Now I'm not sure what bonuses the President is actually referring to because lately I've only been hearing about total "bonus" dollars. So, assuming that all the bonus money is being lumped in together I'll try to help explain.

Banks are very goal and sales orientated. As such the bonus system is a complete part of the compensation package starting all the way down the the tellers. These bonuses are considered part of a persons salary because you get the bonuses for doing your job the way you are supposed to. It is a very effective way to keep the less productive people from staying in the company - a self motivation to quit if you will. With that in mind here are some examples up to the Branch Manager level.

Tellers - bonuses are given when they stay in perfect balance on their drawer. Bonuses are given for referrals for other bank products. The teller gets the customer to site down with a loan officer or the banks internal financial adverser they get bonuses. All this things help generate business for the bank and the bonus system helps insure the teller is doing what is expected and the teller figures in a certain amount of referrals each week for their paycheck.

New Accounts - These people often have a goal of new accounts to meet. A goal of new account dollars to meet and goals for cross-selling other bank products. If all these goals are met then bonuses are given. The new account person expects to meet these goals and as such counts that bonus money as their normal pay. In fact, if/when a new accounts person fails to meet one of their goals they will often consider their paycheck "short".

Loan officers - They also have goals for number of loans, type of loans, and dollars in loans. Exact same deal with the new accounts people. If they don't hit their goals they are "short" on their paycheck.

Branch Managers - Same deal but they have goals to be met for all the categories of all their people added up. Often Branch Managers will get bonuses in a percentage of the profit of the branch. It is very possible for "branches" to be profitable (because all of the branch personnel are doing their job) but for the bank as a whole to have a loss.

That is as far as I will go because that is all my knowledge base goes. Now if all of the bonuses in my examples are also being included in the numbers that the President is using then it may not be real cool to try and take the money back as most of these people are not very rich. In fact many of them are living pay check to pay check struggling to make ends meet.

Just some food for thought. I may be wrong and the President is only looking at the total of the top executives but I do not know.

[BirminghamExaminer]

9. 7 executives are getting $3 million each

Getting a bonus for doing their jobs...now that's ridiculous because they failed to do well for their bank. If a teller gets $100 for keeping their drawer straight that's one thing. AIG is not a bank, it's an insurance company.

The people getting $165million in bonuses are traders and executives.

[Hoopla Phil]

10. I cannot argue the point on those guys. What I'm asking though

is are the lower people on the pole going to have to give up their bonuses also? I have not herd anything about that point?

[denverbill]

5. How about instituting an extreme tax on people getting bailout money bonuses?

I know it's not legal to single out companies or individuals in laws, but if you specify that any officer or director at a bank bailed out will be taxed a 99.9% of the amount over $500,000, that should help the problem.

[Enthusiast]

11. This is one time President Obama

needs to get as lawless as George Bush. He should order the fucks handcuffed and dragged off to Gitmo. Hey, these fuckers are terrorists.