Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Read This Fascinating Letter

This is a letter from an executive at AIG to the CEO of the company in which he offers his resignation. It was published in the New York Times op-ed section. I don't really have anything interesting to add, except that I found it pretty fascinating in the sense that it offers an interesting perspective on the whole bonus issue.

4 comments:

Side Bar said...

I definitely did not know that the recipients of the bonuses had worked for $1 for the past year. Is that true for all of them?

Open Bar said...

"It wasn't me!"

The Notorious LJT said...

I'm no defender of AIG but Congress should be embarassed at their knee jerk reaction last week to those bonuses.

First of all, it was an insignificant amount of money in the great scheme of things.

Second of all, if you're going to take a stand on principle you should take the time to understand the principle for which you are taking a stand.

More than anything, it was just a chance for all those gies to get on TV and be seen railing against AIG - and now they have moved on and you won't hear them talk about it again.

Sound bite achieved, mission accomplished.

Open Bar said...

I agree fully, LJT, and while the letter is an illuminating new angle to view this issue, I still can't sympathize too deeply with a guy who is so INCREDIBLY AND AMAZINGLY UNSELFISH AND MOTHER THERESA-LIKE as to return a payment which he never would have received in the first place had all of us not given his company an assload of money.

I wonder what all those completely innocent Financial Products Division guys at Lehman Brothers are doing with their bonuses. Oh, wait...