The after the fact bailout hearings occuring today on capital hill have produced this gem:
Less than a week after the federal government offered an $85 billion bailout to insurance giant AIG, the company held a week-long retreat for its executives at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., running up a tab of $440,000..
"They were getting their manicures, their pedicures, massages, their facials while the American people were paying their bills," thundered Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), of the executive retreat at the Monarch Resort.
This just after the disclosure that:
Days from becoming the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, Lehman Brothers steered millions to departing executives even while pleading for a federal rescue, Congress was told Monday.
These executives haven't learned a damn thing from this debacle. Because even after screaming for a bailout, we find out some wall street firms are contemplating not taking the deal! Is it because they don't think Americans should foot the bill for their own failures? Oh no, nothing so noble as that. It is because the bailout as agreed to by congress limits stock related pay and bans 'golden parachutes' for new executives. As Devilstower wrote in a front page post:
Wall Street CEOs are willing to "tough it out," watch the market fall to record lows, and put their companies at risk of utter collapse -- because accepting the bailout would mean limiting their personal pay.
The House has already skipped town, abdicating their responsibilities in this sorry mess. Waxmen and a handful of others are conducting hearings exposing executives in this debacle for the craven, greedy, cowards they are, but I think the tradmed has already moved on. They are more interested in the Brittany Spears of Vice Presidential candidates than the looting going on on Wall Street.
I guess it is all just too complicated to be reported on.