There are other concerns with which I am in alignment with the proposed recipients of the bailout bonuses. Despite my ire at these so-called "experts", AIG CEO Edward M. Liddy said something regarding his employees that I understood and agreed with. That was to not reveal publicly the names of his employees who refused to return retention bonuses they took just prior to resigning. The email he read before the House subcommittee is familiar to those of us who opposed the Bush policies of the last eight years, only one of which was the one unleashing the banking industry (with Bill Clinton's blind assistance in 1998) to wreak havoc on the American and world economies through irresponsible financial stewardship. I know something myself of the anger of those who style themselves as spokesmen for The People who authored that clear threat to life and limb, and I understand Liddy's concern.
But Liddy's fears are now realizable with the public release of a partial list of several bonus recipients by the Connecticut State Attorney General. Having exposed these people to the wrath of the mob, it is now the responsibility of the State of Connecticut to protect these men and their innocent families from harm based on the angry Will of The People — even if most are contributors to the tottering Sen. Chris Dodd.
Is there major revolt brewing amid the upset Will of The People? Sure! Bryan Zepp Jamieson compares the AIG situation to the early French Revolution: "...little old ladies sat...watching with mild amusement as the guillotine chopped off the heads of hundreds found by the Revolutionary Committee to be at odds with the needs of the people." He continues with as apt a description of the popular rage aimed at AIG in particular, and at the banks in general, as any I've yet read.
But will this rage be directed at Merrill Lynch when it becomes known that $2.5 billion in Merrill bonuses would not be subjected to the pending House bonus tax bill? Maybe, but they are only doing what they are allowed to get away with. Who then would be the worthy target of the persecution emanating from the irate Will of the People?
Among those who qualify should include Former Fed Chairmen Bernanke and Greenspan — and former Treasury Secretaries Summers, O'Neill, Snow, and Paulson — for doing nothing to regulate the economy as they were changed to perform. But they (except for Paulson) will escape the coming trials by media ordeal. That fate will befall Obama's most egregious mistake to date, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Besides being directly involved in coercing Sen. Chris Dodd (not that it took much pressure) into changing the provisions of his stimulus bill compensation limits, Geithner is being defended from those he's supposed to be regulating. That is, those against whom the wrath of The People is directed.
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