I am upset, disappointed, frustrated, infuriated, and all types of angry over what has happened in this country by our government and its people as it pertains to the economy.
I know I am not the only one.
The absurdity is overwhelming. I could not conceive of this as a reality scenario in even the most horrific Stephen King novel. I am completely dumbfounded and in a state of shock to think that there is even a remote possibility that the things I have seen and heard lately concerning our government and the economy are somehow based on anything approaching real life let alone the mind of a very imaginative fiction writer. How could any of this be real?
Hypocrisy is running rampant in Washington DC. The blame game is in full swing and no one but the other guy is to blame for the current mess we are in. I am amazed at the way Congress and the President are showing their disgust at employees of AIG receiving their agreed upon and contracted for bonuses totaling $165,000,000+ yet no one is saying much about the rest of the $2,000,000,000,000 of tax payer dollars that has been spent or promised for their solution to the economic downturn. (If you don’t understand the magnitude of those numbers and the actual difference between them, you are not alone, Congress does not either.)
They are now talking about taking legal action to ‘reclaim’ the bonuses if they can’t get them back voluntarily through shame or guilt. They are even talking about writing legislation to create new tax laws specifically aimed at taking back these peoples pay checks. Honestly, who is more guilty of a criminal act and gross negligence?
I am not defending the employees for their action as employees, their performances or whether they met the terms of their bonuses or not. I am not focusing on the management at AIG who felt it was necessary to make such agreements to obtain and retain the kind of employees they deemed fit for the positions they had. I am talking about our government’s actions to help. They stepped in and threw money at the problem without understanding the problem or asking questions or checking facts. They gave the money without any strings attached, (though that is hard to believe as anytime the money gives out anything there are strings attached). And now because a business that was labeled ‘too big to fail’ tries to continue to run business the way it always has (which is partly why it is in the shape it is) and we are supposed to be outraged and focus our attention on the employees because they got paid to do what they are paid to do? I don’t think so.
If Congress had let AIG fail, as businesses are supposed to be allowed to do when things don’t work out, the house of cards could have fallen, the damage would have been assessed and the remaining goods sold to valid companies at fire sale prices if need be, but then life and business goes on. AIG under bankruptcy law would have been able to renegotiate with court approval such things as employee agreements, pensions, and creditors payback. Congress could have let any of this happen and actually could have directed regulators to help facilitate the process in an orderly fashion but instead they chose to take the knee jerk reaction that threw money at the problem in the misguided notion that they had to do something. Hence they nationalized the bank (which is scandalous in any situation) without really taking anything over. They became the very noisy and boisterous silent partner. Unfortunately they did it using our tax payer money.
Though all of this is really sad and pathetic and Congress should voluntarily shut down and close shop from shame and embarrassment, the really scary thing that worries me the most is the way they are going after a target (the employees) with a vengeance that is unwarranted. If anything, Congress is every bit as culpable as the employees they are attacking and more so because this is only the tip of the giant iceberg they have created to take down the Titanic we fondly refer to as the USA.
My wish is that they would work at least as hard to renege the bailout/stimulus package they put in place, reclaim our hard earned tax dollars, both present and future, and cut their drag on my economy. Go ahead President Obama, cancel all the lousy financial actions Congress and you have passed in the past 6 months with the same vigor that you are trying to wipe out any actions taken by the previous administration. If you did that, I really would begin to have ‘hope’ again as that is a real ‘change’ I could believe in. Until then….
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
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