On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 3:19 PM, Gruss Gott <grussg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Chuck wrote: > > this business of the 90% tax came about. Because there was no legal way > to > > stop them from collecting the money. So the government got creative and > > targeted these people who did nothing wrong legally (again, in the > specific > > case of collecting their bonus). > > > > I agree with everything you said, but just would add something you > missed: the US taxpayer is now a majority investor in AIG. > Then the US taxpayer's Guy on Board should have inquired, prior to handing over the cash, whether or not there were any bonuses to be paid within 'x' timeframe. To be fair, AIG probably also should have asked for very specific and clear boundaries to be defined as far as what this major investor could or could not do. Although I suppose in the continued interest of being fair, the US taxpayer's Guy on Board could have made it more clear. > Majority investors are typically activist, if they're smart, and well > within their reason for doing so. > Or they're silent partners. I guess these things should have been discussed prior to handing over and/or taking the investment. > Usually this activists put people on the board to watch over things > and make sure shit like this doesn't happen. > In this case, Congress and the President happens to be our guy on the board. See above. So there are a couple of tricky questions: > > (1.) What span of control does the government have in a private > company's operations in cases like this? > See above :) (snipping) Or the law could - and probably is - written not against a specific > group of individuals as it is against bonuses for failed companies run > by government by necessity. Frankly that's great incentive for > companies to avoid failing - and apparently they need them. > But the law was written after the fact, because the gov't had no legal recourse. That's why it's scary. It's scary because they'd hit a legal wall and had to circumvent it. Gov't shouldn't be circumventing legal walls. That's... y'know... bad. -- I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my life. I love my wife. And I wish you my kind of success. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:293076 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
