March 20, 2009 5:29 PM

Populist Anger At AIG Spilling Over

By
Brian Montopoli
Topics
In The News
(CBS)
It has come to this: Tomorrow, the Working Families Party in Connecticut is hosting a bus tour of the homes of executives of AIG, the insurance giant that has become a source of populist rage for handing out large bonuses after taking billions in government bailout money.

"Their executives bear a large share of the responsibility for bringing the economy to it's knees, and now the same folks are getting hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses -- at our expense," they write. "Join us for a field trip to bring them the message."

Liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org, meanwhile, has set up an online game in which you throw tomatoes at the AIG building.

"We should stop throwing money at the people who ruined our economy—and start throwing (virtual) tomatoes," the group writes in an email to members.

Meanwhile, as Dealbreaker notes, AIG sent a memo warning its employees to "avoid displaying company issued ID card outside of the office space" and "avoid using bags, apparel, etc that displays the company logo" during a protest at the company's building yesterday.

Also, "if you are on a lower floor, close the blinds/shades to windows."

As the New York Times noted this morning - in a story headlined "Scorn Trails A.I.G. Executives, Even in Their Driveways" - the company's executives have been fending off death threats. (That's the main reason the company's CEO told Congress he did not want to release the names of bonus recipients.) Many AIG employees now have private security guards at their doors.

"It is as bad if not worse than McCarthyism," one executive said.

The Times notes that "several security companies in New York credited the financial crisis with a noticeable increase in some areas of their business, from protecting executives to dispatching bomb-sniffing dogs to check for trouble."

Add a Comment See all 34 Comments
by aziridine March 22, 2009 9:24 PM EDT
It has always intrigued me that the left exhibits much more hatred in its actions than the right. It has always been the left that placed bombs, it has always been the left that sought to destroy anyone opposing their agenda.

Now we have organized mobs of lefties laying the homes of their opponents to seige. A similar occurence took place in Germany on 11/9/38. On that occasion Jews had been set up as a scapegoat for Germany's economic woes. Mobs vandalized and destroyed Jewish businesses, beat and murdered the people who owned those businesses. This what the left in America now proposes.

Obama shrugs and allows it to happen.

It is noteworthy that the scapegoat/public outrage/violence scenario has fed the greatest slaughters in history. WWII Germany, Stalinist Russia, China in the 50s, Cambodia, East Timor, Rwanda....and now we see the seeds here in the United States...and Obama shrugs and allows it to happen.

Yes, the change is coming......martial law is close...very close...and Obama shrugs and allows it to happen.
Reply to this comment
by ceb969 March 22, 2009 3:07 PM EDT
First of all I want to work for a company that gives out bonus when the company is in the red! Like most of you that I read their comments on this posting you see it the same way.
Democrat or Republican I do not care who started it ( even through BUSH was in the White house when it started lets keep facts straight ) just fix it and finish it.
People who point fingers saying they started it are doing nothing to fix the problem.
Last note on this If the want to keep their bonus fire them and tell them that is their severance package.
Reply to this comment
by actornaught March 22, 2009 2:30 PM EDT
Class warfare
Posted by bumpedoff1 at 8:11 AM : Mar 22, 2009

Right you are! Neocons have been waging war and robbing the middleclass since reagan, all with the help of they neo-conned mob voters.

Enough with Entitlements for corporations and the wealthy, and tax them at least as much as the middleclass!!
Reply to this comment
by bumpedoff1 March 22, 2009 11:11 AM EDT
Class warfare
Reply to this comment
by actornaught March 22, 2009 10:47 AM EDT
This is more or less an ecstetic outrage at the token percentage of bailout bucks being shoveled up to execs. BUT it's a great starting point to help the public be aware of how grossly out of shape US exec pay has become, even when they are abject failures. They have a culture of Pure Entitlement. They get a blind eye to what amounts to Institutionalized Embezzlement.

Time to get it reined in. Even the ones that do their job aren't worth this. No need to put it in the legal system, just let the public awareness segment of the Free Enterprise system do it's job.
Reply to this comment
by toolmangler-2009 March 21, 2009 10:33 PM EDT
Can someone tell me if you are hired for a job and you do that job as outlined why you should not get a bonus?
Posted by dwilson59 at 12:52 PM : Mar 21, 2009




Because you merely did what you were paid to do. Now if you did your job so well that the company benefitted greatly then you might deserve a bonus (or at least an "Ataboy/girl")
Reply to this comment
by kiawest March 21, 2009 6:55 PM EDT
They are getting bonuses because some idiot gave them legal contracts that said they would get retention bonuses and our country is based on the legal system so they can sue if they do not get them. Maybe if the Treasury and Congress had put something in the bailout document stating they would NOT get the bonuses because there was no longer AIG funds, it would be okay. Instead, our Treasury (White House) went out of its way to add that the bonuses would be given and this was added at the last minute. WHY? That's the question.
Reply to this comment
by hungryman9 March 21, 2009 3:56 PM EDT
Can someone tell me if you are hired for a job and you do that job as outlined why you should not get a bonus?
Posted by dwilson59
===================
I had a job that in good years I received a bonus. In bad years I did not. My daughter and her husband work with a company and they always receive a bonus until this year and did not because the company did not make any money. My feelings are if the company made money they should be paid a reasonable bonus but not to the extent it hurt others and the company.
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by ceb969 March 21, 2009 3:54 PM EDT
Why are these people (AIG top dogs ) even getting a bonuses? Did I miss something doesn't the company need to make a profit for the people to get a bonuses?
Maybe I am to old school but when I got bonuses the amount depended on how much profit you made for the company not on how many days I show up for work.
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by hungryman9 March 21, 2009 3:40 PM EDT
All Wind, you sure do like to make up some big ones. Obama has spent 4 times more than Bush did in four years of give away. You need to do some research and tell the truth.
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