irreality

This is really getting old.

ABC affiliate KNXV discovers $343,000 secret AIG gathering

With hidden signs and logos this time, because, according to company spokesperson, Nick Ashooh:

“We’re trying to avoid confrontation, keep our profile low,” said Ashooh. “Some of our employees have been harassed.”

Gee, really?  I wonder why that might be.

Oh yeah – this is on the same day the Fed gives AIG even more of our money.

The government restructured its bailout of American International Group Inc, raising the package to a record $150 billion with easier terms, after a smaller rescue plan failed to stabilize the ailing insurance giant.

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department announced the new plan on Monday as AIG reported a record third-quarter loss of $24.47 billion, largely from write-downs of investments.

The new package, at least $27 billion more than was previously extended, will leave the government exposed to billions of dollars of potential losses.

…. Who can we the people, the ones paying for this bailout, complain to?  Why is nothing being done about this?  Where is the accountability?  This “bailout” is nothing more than a robbing of the taxpayers.

Oh, but if we don’t bail these companies out, they will fail and the economy will crash and it will be the end of the world as we know it!

Whatever.  Let these bastards pay the full price for their greed and stop giving them our money as a reward for their shady business practices.

It sure looks like it.

The Austin Business Journal is reporting that a memo has been sent out to Dell workers asking them to consider taking up to five days of unpaid time off to further help the company save money and prevent layoffs.

According to spokesman David Frink, the memo from CEO Michael Dell says the new program calls for a temporary companywide hiring freeze, the elimination of contract employees, severance packages to those who depart voluntarily, and a voluntary furlough of one to five days. The memo also states that more layoffs may be necessary if the other elements of the program do not achieve enough cost savings.

A sobering memo indeed, as Dell Computer Corporation is one of Central Texas’ largest companies.

“We’re implementing a program that helps better position Dell for long-term competitiveness,” says Frink. “What we’re trying to do is address costs in a way that gives employees more choices.”

This memo follows an announcement last March disclosing the planned shutdown of Dell’s desktop manufacturing facility and layoffs of 8,800 in an effort to save money.

Thanks for screwing the economy over, here’s a bonus check!

Nell Minow is absolutely right in her New York Post article, calling for Henry Paulson to stop the bonus checks to executives at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

1. It is hypocritical. The Wall Street guys always rhapsodize about the perfection of the free market – until it stops showering them with money. Then people who are already in the top fraction of a percent of the wealthiest people in the world want to be “made whole” with billion-dollar welfare checks.

2. It is unfair. The only justification for multi-million-dollar pay packages is that they reward performance. That means that in a bad year what had gone up must come down.

3. It is infuriating. I’ve observed many financial scandals, from the savings and loan failures through Enron, WorldCom, and post-Sarbanes-Oxley messes like backdated options. All were recognized as tragic but not pervasive – compartmentalized as the corruption of a limited group of individuals.

But across the country, people see this mess as central to the operation of Wall Street and we are outraged at having to take money that would better be spent on education, the environment, paying down the debt – or lowering taxes – and spend it on making up for the greed and stupidity of a bunch of rich people trying to get richer.

4. It makes it easier for our competitors in global markets. The rest of the world has never really tried to compete with our investment banks, intimidated by their power, expertise, and reach. The current mess has opened up new opportunities for non-US financial institutions.

5. It is asking for trouble from Washington. I’d hate to be a politician who voted for the bailout and has to explain how this money got diverted from customers to bankers. If Wall Street cannot accept some responsibility for creating this problem, Congress and the regulatory agencies will be more than willing to step in to make them.

The most insulting to me out of all this is the fact that there seems to be no way for us, the people who have been saddled with the bill for this bailout, to voice our outrage.  Sure, we can post on blogs, we can rant aloud to each other, and we can mail and call our politicians, but at the end of the day, who will listen to us saying “NO”?  When do our feelings on the matter come into consideration?  After all, it is a debt WE will be paying off, not them!

When we common people perform poorly, or fail, we suffer through the consequences, while these people have the audacity to give themselves huge bonuses while asking for our money to save them from the situation they helped create.  Unbelievable.

Does this really come as a surprise to anyone?

American International Group Inc. has used $90.3 billion of a U.S. government credit line since it was bailed out last month, an amount exceeding the size of the original loan meant to save the insurer.

But it’s all being used to save the company, right?  Right?

Maybe, maybe not -

AIG isn’t disclosing “basic stuff” about how the Fed money is being used, UBS AG credit desk analyst David Havens said in an e-mail.

“The lack of disclosure has been a point of frustration,” Havens said. “We lack granular knowledge as to exactly where this $90 billion is going.”

Of course now that AIG has officially, really, honestly, we really do mean it this time, we swear, canceled all company perks, spa trips, and luxury retreats, I’m sure that now we will see an honest accounting of where all our money is being spent.

I won’t be holding my breath though.

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) — The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits climbed back up toward the half-million mark last week, a government report showed, suggesting severe weakness in labor markets.