The big news this week that has everyone and his sister up in arms is that AIG, the shamed insurance giant (I believe it's a company as well, though no one refers to it as such), which received $170 billion in government bailout funds, paid $165 million in "rentention" bonuses to executives in the financial products division, a.k.a. the guys who screwed the pooch. Why this is big news today and not months ago when The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve first caught wind of it raises all kinds of questions about what the heck is going on here.
I then proceeded to rip on Democrats and Republicans alike and their collective outrage at the whole situation. I made some jokes about ritual suicide, teleprompter necessity, and credit-default swaps - a financial derivative I specialize in but don't understand. In characteristic fashion, I was harder on the liberals than on the conservatives and tried to present some lesser known facts and quotes. I mixed up my tenses a lot too.
Right before I post the thing, I insert one last link (it compared Barney Frank, the petulant, slobbering Looney Toon who heads the House Financial Services Committee, to the Hangman from Robin Hood Men in Tights) and suddenly, with no warning, Blogger - the site we use for AMDAL - eats my stuff. Seriously, 65% of it (i.e. the middle three paragraphs) - gone, faster than a freshman girl and a box of breadsticks.
Frustrated and looking to ease my mind, I turned on the tv, only to find Jon Stewart opening the Daily Show with an "AIG outrage" piece much like mine, albeit slightly more self-righteous and a little less caustic. Worse, he made absolutely no reference to Chris Dodd, AIG's largest single recipient of campaign donations in 2008, or his little amendment - which is a joke in itself. (The John Oliver St. Paddy's Day reporting, however, is excellent. J-E-T-S!)
Anyway, here's the last remaining part of my post, an actual notice I found taped to the fridge at work. My firm, a company that sounds a little bit like Beutsche Dank, just received over $12,000,000,000 in taxpayer bailout money from - guess who? - none other than AIG! Hopefully now, with this huge influx in cash, BD will allow its hardworking employees to again use the communal milk "for personal use including cereal."
Anyway, here's the last remaining part of my post, an actual notice I found taped to the fridge at work. My firm, a company that sounds a little bit like Beutsche Dank, just received over $12,000,000,000 in taxpayer bailout money from - guess who? - none other than AIG! Hopefully now, with this huge influx in cash, BD will allow its hardworking employees to again use the communal milk "for personal use including cereal."
