Greedy businessmen were getting filthy rich off unregulated financial product sales!? GASP! HOW SHOCKING!? How could this have happened!? And On OBAMA's watch too! It's a MYSTERY!!
Gather round everybody it's a mystery AND a scandal! The corporate media continues to shovel out distractions at a time when we desperately need an inquisitive, informative, and constructive, 4th Estate.
AIG, the almighty-insurance-provider-that-shall-not-fail, has paid to its top executives, including some of those which were in charge of the Financial Products division, a combined sum of $165 million dollars in bonuses for the fiscal year 2008. Questions of whether or not the administration knew about it or not aside, I have but one question: Is ANYONE surprised by this AT ALL?
Seriously. The leaders of this country, aka Obama, Geithner, and Bernanke among others, have a bit more on their minds right now than what AIG was paying its employees. We gave them a capital injection remember? That means they use the capital to pay for their debts and obligations, including paying its employees.
The fact that they are multi-million dollar bonuses is irrelevant! Of course they were getting rich off this nonsense! In a world with the mere existence of unregulated derivatives trading, how could we not expect this? But it comes down to contracts and law. That is what they were slated to be paid, and that was what they were paid. Period.
The essence of what I am getting at is this: How twisted this world has become. This corporate media culture of ours. We can’t even talk about the Crisis of Our Times in an honest light? Where is the discourse over financial regulation reform? Of Health Care Reform? How should Education be restructured? What are our plans for updating the nation’s Infrastructure for the 21st Century? Where are the ideas? WHAT ARE THE IDEAS!?
But no, instead we hear about how greedy men plotted greedy little schemes… We’ll march‘em on up to Capitol Hill, wag our collective finger at them, and waste all of our precious time.