If it is “too big to fail,” let it fail
Forget politics for a moment.
Forget about whether you’re a liberal or conservative, and consider this.
When the Wall Street collapse began, one of the first companies to get in trouble was the giant insurance firm, AIG.
At the time – remember? – we were told AIG was “too big to fail.” So we taxpayers shelled out $180 billion to rescue the company and keep it afloat. In effect, we bought a controlling interest in the company.
Now, get this. Yesterday, even though they have still not paid us back all of that money, AIG handed out $100 million in bonuses to its top executives.
They did so, despite protests by President Obama. And Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg says the bonuses, while outrageous, are still legal and must be paid, according to contractual agreements made years ago.
In other words, when we bought that turkey, we bought those contracts, too – and there’s nothing, legally, we can do about it. Millions of American families will still go without a paycheck, while Wall Street fat cats undeservedly pocket another $100 million.
Lesson learned, which is this: The bail-out of Wall Street was a big mistake, and we’re still paying the price.
The next time any company “too big to fail” gets in trouble, let it fail.
That’s my parting shot for today.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 9:59 am and is filed under BILL BLOG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hank Paulson was instrumental in turning Goldman Sach’s into a public company. Suprisingly he only let Lehman fail, and watched as Bear Stearns disappeared in the blink of an eye. However, when Goldman Sach’s could go down, the Treasury under the leadership of Hank Paulson rushes in to save the day. Wall Street is cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Wall Street can pay themselves all US dollars in the world, but once they bankrupt the country they will be in the same boat as the rest of America.