Comments on: AIG Putting on the Ritz at Taxpayer’s Expense

By: Teddy Partridge

Teddy Partridge — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:26:48 +0000

Lisa, I think Mr Ashooh stated that there were only 10 employees at the $443,000 event at Monarch Beach.

By: Teddy Partridge

Teddy Partridge — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:26:11 +0000

Doesn’t the federal government own 80% of A.I.G. now? And, as majority stockholders, shouldn’t we make employees subject to federal travel restrictions? And shouldn’t we ensure our money isn’t frittered away on frivolities like these “educational components?”

Fire Paulson First!

By: Lisa Derrick

Lisa Derrick — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:35:02 +0000

I make lots of typos in comments…And you are right, these are parties and rewards, a luxury junket. Which is why there as a $23,000 spa bill at the last one. Figure 70 people, that about $200 worth of spa services. Basically a massage and gratuity..

By: shell

shell — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:50:41 +0000

Oops! Typo. There were about 35 Directors — not 15.

By: shell

shell — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:47:02 +0000

I once worked at a company that did this, but they drew the line at Directors. Meaning all vice presidents (there were about 6 of them) and Directors (there were about 15 of them) could go, but no one lower. Why? They were all MALES.

Then — the unthinkable happened. A female became a director. Oh no! What to do? We CAN’T have a WOMAN on our retreat! It would spoil all the fun! So, they decided one of the higher-ups had to stay behind — you know, to mind the store. Funny — they had never had to have someone left behind in the years before. It is a no-brainer to guess which one was left behind.

But there is more to these “retreats.” Hookers. Lots of them. High-priced hookers, yes. But hookers all the same. If they allow wives along, I guess they keep the hookers to the “official business” part of it, where spouses aren’t allowed.

Or maybe, in the past 15 years or so, American business has gotten more sane, and there are too many women in high places. But somehow, I doubt it.

And, by the way, these retreats have nothing to do with business. It is all pleasure and a REWARD for their “hard work” all year. Yeah, it’s HARD WORK to lose THAT much money for the country and the shareholders.

By: MaxZook

MaxZook — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:46:47 +0000

You really don’t think AIG is the only bailed-out company behaving this way, did you?

By: Lisa Derrick

Lisa Derrick — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:30:48 +0000

This is a nice blog entry, but I am afraid the facts are a bit off from the ” WAPO article”

And just last week, about 70 of the company’s top performers were rewarded with a week-long stay at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., where they ran up a tab of $440,000.

Well yes, because the WaPo article is about a past trip that occurred in September. I wrote about a future trip that AIG wont call off.

Perhaps I was unclear: this is an upcoming trip, due to happen in mid October, thouhg I do make reference to the past trip. I have inserted a phrase to make that clearer, thank you for pointing that out. The first link in the article, one of my sources articles also leads to info about the upcoming trip.

By: TobyWollin

TobyWollin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:19:33 +0000

Hugh - not to flog my piece from yesterday, but I updated it last night with some more information about what was going on last spring during ‘l’affaire Spitzer’:
Friday, 3/7/08: Carlyle Capital, mortgage investment fund, gets in trouble; suspends shares trading. This group is associated with James Baker, the Bush family, and possibly the Saudi Arabians. They are losing money. Big time.
3/10/2008: New York Times article names Spitzer as a client of a prostitution ring being investigated by the feds
3/11/08: Fed, as part of an international central banking effort puts $200 billion into the system to support bad home mortgages
3/12/08: Carlyle announces their assets are being seized.

In other words: We, the American People, were already $200 billion in the hole last march to shore up banks with bad mortgages. So, let’s take out our calculators and just keep a running tab.

By: TobyWollin

TobyWollin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:12:18 +0000

Treasury just gave AIG more money.
“The Federal Reserve on Wednesday agreed to provide insurance giant American International Group Inc. with a loan of up to $37.8 billion, on top of one made to the troubled company last month.
Under the new program, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will borrow up to $37.8 billion in investment-grade, fixed income securities from AIG in return for cash collateral. These securities were previously lent by AIG’s insurance company subsidiaries to third parties.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..ge/fed_aig

By: LS

LS — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:10:13 +0000

Can someone who knows something about FISA take a look at this new Executive Order?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news.....007-7.html

It is probably nothing….part of it reads:

“as amended by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-261), it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Section 1-103 of Executive Order 12139 of May 23, 1979, as amended, is further amended by:

(a) striking “(7)” each place it appears and inserting in lieu thereof “(6)”;

(b) adding after subsection (h) “(i) Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”; and

(c) by adding after the sentence that begins “None of the above officials . . .”, a new sentence to read “The requirement of the preceding sentence that the named official must be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate does not apply to the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Just throwing it out there.