“Class warfare” is what the rich folks call it when the poor folks start fighting back. For the last 30 years at least, we’ve had “class massacres’ perpetrated by the rich against the poor, but I suspect you never had a problem with that.

The handful of souls who championed the firm’s now-infamous credit-default swaps are, by nearly every account, long since departed. Those left behind to clean up the mess, the majority of whom never lost a dime for AIG, now feel they have been sold out by their Congress and their president.

But why should this mob care about facts? Why should this rabble actually bother they have the right targets before they go on their pitchfork-brandishing witchhunt? All they want is a sacrificial lamb. Any victim will do.

http://gawker.com/5175745/aig-corporate-securitys-tips-for-surviving-an-angry-mob

nope. These are their golf partners.

Why should this rabble actually bother they have the right targets before they go on their pitchfork-brandishing witchhunt?

Who are the right targets? The mob (the same mob that just pulled the ungrateful jerks from the river) wants full names and swiss bank account numbers.

If they’re going to drink our milkshake, take even just a sip, then they’re going to finish the whole damn thing.

http://pensionpulse.blogspot.com/2009/03/mother-of-all-stealth-scams.html

They are after yer pension savings….and yer social-security and medicare.

responsibility is hard work.

Putting all that aside, the question isn’t necessarily whether these particular executives were personally responsible for the chaos. Another question would be why the billions of dollars that went to subsidize and stabilize AIG should find its way into executive pockets in such sizable chunks. These individuals may or may not have been responsible for causing the conditions that required a bailout. But they are personally diverting the funds provided to relieve it. The money didn’t go into AIG to pay for those houses in Connecticut — it was, down the line, for all the other homes across the country.

People are looking for witches, indeed, except that it’s not magic that brought sickness to the village; behind the pitchforks and venom, there’s some math. 185 billion federal dollars in, of which 165 million immediately went out in lump sums to executives as performance-based rewards. “Those left behind to clean up the mess” might just deserve respect, indeed. But not 165 million dollars worth of bonus respect, paid out in one week.

But I do applaud your use of rhetoric in using the word “victim” for the recipients of multi-million dollar bonuses constructed from federal bailout funds. It would be easy to read that and feel like the anger should be redirected to, well, nowhere in particular.

Whatever you think of it ethically, they were doing what they have been doing for years – their jobs – and if you believe some of the arguments: if they didn’t, there would have been an employee shitstorm.

I’m actually scared about this story. Not just for the fact that clearly people are going to get hurt – seriously, what other reason is there for this bus tour to exist other than anger and revenge
(Nothing, its not about curiosity or sending some nice message). I’m more scared for our decent into mob-mentality. Whatever happened to due process? I’m being serious here. We can’t want the return to proper due process in the world (or America – I’m in Australia), but then act like we should make judgements and then act on them.

The names of these executives should NOT be released until things have been dealt with.

Holy fuck man. This is the problem now – it was once just the questionable business ethics, now its about how we react and deal with it. I just wrote about due process. This is completely fucked.

Don’t get me wrong, I HATE AIG. Scathing, flesh-ripping scorn, the same kind close to what I feel towards Bush & Cheney. But what Bush & Cheney did far outweighs these bastards. Still- realize that not everyone who works for a bad employer is bad themselves. Takuan’s article put a human face on the enemy. I’m sure there are plenty of fearing innocents there, and they are good people. If my travels around the world have taught me anything, it’s that there are always good people, often where you don’t expect to find them.

But mercy aside, there is too much latent rage in the USA. Too much from the actions of the last 8 years, too much after seeing, as a whole, WallStreet hold America ransom. And so I’ll be damned if I will shed a tear of sympathy for the system. Innocent people might suffer, in the end, and that must be avoided at all costs. But the system they collectively represent is what is going to be the backdraft catching firewall for the American people. We need something to rage at right now, the rage of a lost decade, the rage of lost dreams, lost hope, and lost retirement. Whole people have lost their life savings thanks to these assholes on Wallstreet- the bad ones.

And so it will come down- everything. Innocents will end up being caught in the crossfire, but maybe all the better to remind Americans personally the terrible impact of our own greed on our own people. This will be the Berlin Wall for my generation.

I, for one, can’t wait to see the meek tear that f*cker down, and shake the very core of these damn greedy bankers and the ghosts of neo-con past.

Maybe pitchforks aren’t the right answer. However, this situation will cause alot more indirect harm than people realize…even death. That rides square on the shoulders of the people who did this and don’t care. I would personally like to see the day when the leaders of this country, corporate or otherwise, excercise a little more caution for fear of “the people”.

http://xkcd.com/558/

“About $3.6 billion in Merrill Lynch & Co. bonuses wouldn’t be affected by the new legislation because they were paid before Dec. 31.”

or

“The tax wouldn’t apply to any bonus returned to a company, or to commissions or fringe benefits.”

and finally

“It wouldn’t apply to foreign workers of U.S. companies.”

This legislation will do absolutely nothing to get any money back from anyone. Especially considering the office which wrote these contracts was based in London, England.

“The House vote absolutely reflects public outrage,” said Barry Burden, director of graduate studies in political science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “It is populism at its most intense.”

That might not be the official strategy, but yes. That’s how some folks feel. A lot of folks. Hrm. Most of the country even.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/03/25/business/econwatch/entry4891431.shtml

Oh, that’s different than I thought. I thought it was an attempt to intimidate the crap out of these folks and their families where they live so they’d refuse to accept the money.

While all the “enlightened” commenters above who are salivating for mob rule are embarrassing themselves on the internet. Lets stop and remember that that money was already wasted the second we bought AIG. Collectively we purchased the least profitable company in the history of the world. Technically a company can’t get as unprofitable as they are because of bankruptcy law.

At the very least the 160 million in bonuses might actually stimulate the economy if they get spent. The rest of it is going to buying up worthless securities. Anyone now all these a-holes at AIG are out the door and we own the least profitable company in history with now corporate leadership bad or otherwise.

governments should not by private companies

““It could be considerably higher, I won’t deny that,” Rattner said, when asked whether U.S. aid sought could rise to $30 billion or $40 billion.

(Steven Rattner, the U.S. Treasury’s chief auto adviser)”

Is there are word about them?

Can we tour their homes?

Learn to debate with facts and class or go back to Kindergarten and start over again. Circular arguments are like trying to fit round pegs into square holes. It might look like it fits but it doesn’t belong.

To the moderator – let’s try to keep this as a dialog and omit personal attacks from making this news story any more than what it is outside of the facts. The tour site itself stated that the second stop was at ACORN headquarters. Interesting point.