In his flabbergasting letter to Secretary Geithner (the shorter version of which amounts to the following: "fuck you"), AIG's Edward Libby lugged out yet again the tired song and dance routine about his inability to "attract and retain the best and brightest talent" if these boy geniuses aren't endlessly showered in cash and prizes and ego-stroking.
Recall that the taxpayer-subsidized billions in bonuses are being siphoned overabundantly toward AIG's Financial Products division (AIGFP) in particular, that is to say, into the small division in the company that has the distinction of being almost singlehandedly responsible for all the cleverness that has bankrupted the company and brought on the Great Recession.
One really wants to know what kind of funhouse mirror you have to be looking at the world through if you think these brainless white toothed sharks constitute the "best and the brightest" in any sense of the term.
It really is hilarious to envision Libby wringing his hands for fear of losing this "talent." Not to mention, it isn't as if there are likely to be swarms of headhunters out to scoop up even actually talented folks (surely there's one or two among these empty-eyed thugs) in the made-up bullshit "financial products" business in times like these. He may not have noticed from his penthouse that there is a shattering planetary financial crisis on.
Look, these self-congratulatory swindlers and pampered mama's boys are in a bubble of privilege and self-regard no amount of commonsense or decency or sternly-worded letters will ever penetrate.
One can sniff the cutesy corner-cutting and fraud from a hundred miles away. Contracts are nothing but confetti once they're exposed as indulgences in illegality, and these smug gangsters's pious declarations that their hands are tied because they are contractually obligated to give billions in bonanza bonuses to these boneheads who would have been bankrupt and high and dry if it weren't for the money we're being pickpocketed for (pickpocketed a second time, the first time paid for the roller-coaster they were riding throughout the last decade) is worse than an affront to decency and commonsense and propriety.
Time for criminal investigations.
It's naming and shaming and perp walk time. Nothing else will stop this crap. It's as simple as that.
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4 comments:
Dale wrote:
> AIG's Edward Libby lugged out yet again the tired song
> and dance routine about his inability to "attract and
> retain the best and brightest talent" if these boy geniuses
> aren't endlessly showered in cash and prizes and ego-stroking.
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/15/1846236
> I have seen a growing trend of what I would call 'TV reality'
> college graduates — kids who graduated school in the last few
> years and seem to have a view of the workplace that is very
> much fashioned by TV programs, where 22-year-olds lead
> billion-dollar corporate mergers in Paris and jet around the
> world. Several years ago I worked at a company that did customization
> for the software they sold. It was not full-on consultant work,
> but some aspects of it were 'consulting light,' and did involve travel,
> some overseas. Almost every college graduate I interviewed fully
> expected to be sent overseas on their first assignment. They were
> very disappointed when told they were most likely to end up in places
> like Decatur, IL and Cedar Rapids, IA, as only the most senior people
> fly overseas, because of the cost. Additionally, I see people in
> this age bracket expecting almost constant rewards. . .
>
> So today I see an article about the growing narcissism of students
> [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7943906.stm ],
> and I want to ask this community: are you seeing the sorts of
> 'crashing down to Earth' expectations of college grads described here?
Dale asks:
> One really wants to know what kind of funhouse mirror you have to
> be looking at the world through if you think these brainless
> white toothed sharks constitute the "best and the brightest" in
> any sense of the term.
You have to be what's known as a "conservative".
"Worldly success is an indicator of sufficient moral strength; lack of success
suggests lack of sufficient discipline. Those who are not successful should not
be coddled; they should be forced to acquire self-discipline.
When this view is translated into politics, the government becomes the strict father
whose job for the country is to support (maximize overall wealth) and protect
(maximize military and political strength). The citizens are children of two kinds:
the mature, disciplined, self-reliant ones who should not be meddled with and
the whining, undisciplined, dependent ones who should never be coddled.
This means (among other things) favoring those who control corporate wealth
and power (those seen as the best people) over those who are victims (those seen
as morally weak). It means removing government regulations, which get in the
way of those who are disciplined. Nature is seen as a resource to be exploited.
One-way communication translates into government secrecy. The highest moral value
is to preserve and extend the domain of strict morality itself, which translates
into bringing the values of strict father morality into every aspect of life,
both public and private, domestic and foreign."
-- George Lakoff, in _The American Prospect_, Sept. 01, 2003
http://www.mail-archive.com/futurework@scribe.uwaterloo.ca/msg13365.html
But of course, you knew that already.
So many wonderful sentences in this post!
To bring two topics together, you might or might not be surprised by what Eliezer Yudkowsky -- the singularity guru -- thinks of these 'competent' elites you want to see perp-walking.
His essay at the link below is chock-full of fawning insanities. This one nearly caused me to splutter a perfectly good mouthful of coffee onto my keyboard:
Hedge-fund people sparkle with extra life force.
No I'm not making that up.
Enjoy.
> Hedge-fund people sparkle with extra life force.
Imperious leader is channelling L. Ron Hubbard.
Or maybe -- could it be? A Mighty Thetan Is
Our Ron.
More people who "sparkle with extra life force":
http://valleywag.gawker.com/5171500/barack-obamas-cio-a-confessed-thief
----------------------------------------
In the annals of vetting, this will go down as the most
laughable miss ever: Vivek Kundra, the D.C. official tapped
by Obama to run government technology. . .
Kundra is currently suspended from his White House job
[of CIO, Chief Information Officer] as Yusuf Acar, a manager
in the D.C. office Kundra headed, faces bribery charges. . .
[Acar] bragged to a government witness about bilking
$6 million from the D.C. tech budget. . .
[Meanwhile], Maryland state records show that a Vivek Kundra
pleaded guilty to a theft of less than $300, for which he received
supervised probation before judgment and a fine of $500, $400
of which was suspended. . . A search of public records reveals
that the Gaithersburg, Md. address listed in the case record matches
a previous address for Kundra himself and a business, Kundra Consulting. . .
When Kundra, an advocate of free Web-based software like Gmail,
was first named to the CIO post, tech enthusiasts hailed his nomination
as proof that Obama took their concerns seriously. They have fallen
strangely silent as Kundra's reputation has grown tarnished. One
of Kundra's few remaining defenders, TechPresident's Micah Sifry,
noted Kundra's work in "theft and fraud prevention" . . .
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