And in a follow on to Jim’s series of moral outrage posts…. There are reports today that AIG, which recieved $170B (that 170 with 9 zeros after it, folks*) in TARP bailout money will be paying out $165M in retention bonuses today in addition to $55M that has already been paid. Edward Liddy, CEO of AIG, says that he’s been informed by lawyers that AIG could face lawsuits if they didn’t payout the bonuses. Now maybe it’s just me but these are some of the people that are responsible for the global economic meltdown and I dare the motherfuckers to find a set of 12 people as jurors anywhere outside the Financial District in Manhattan that thinks they’re entitled to bonuses instead of public flogging.

I can’t find it anywhere in print but while I was getting my coffee this morning, Liddy was on Fox News saying that, in addition to being contractually obligated to paying the bonuses, it would be impossible to work their way out the current crisis without being able to keep good employees**. Again, maybe it’s just me, but why are these people so complete unique in their ability to bring AIG out of the woods? Aren’t they the ones that caused the problems in the first place? Couldn’t you put the average 12 year old in charge and expect them to not lose almost $62B in the next quarter?

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*To put this number into a little bit better perspective…. If you and your 499 closest friends make $100,000 a year for the entirety of your 50 year working career you would need to find 680 groups just like yours to earn that kind of money in your lifetime.

**Here’s a link to a Boing Boing article by David Gillmor where he puts itoh so succinctly.

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