Tag Archives: A.I.G.

U.S. to EU: we don’t do ‘hell’

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Okay, so this is how it works in the dysfunctional world we lead. The spoiled son embarrasses dad on the eve of the patriarch’s visit, knowing that pops’ll spring for the Wii he so wants just to shut him up.

So it is with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, head of the European Union, who just blasted the U.S. stimulus measures as the “way to hell.”

President Obama, as it happens, is scheduled to arrive in Prague in less than two weeks. And this Topolanek, who, by the way just received a vote of no confidence from his government, will be looking for more than a Wii, perhaps enough to fund a whole high-tech industry. You think?

Thank you EU leaders. Once again, just as we’re all trying to get along so like the world doesn’t crumble around us, you shoot off your hypocritical mouths again. Recall the French arrogance (did I leave off an accent grave somewhere?) post 9/11. We can still take the freedom fries out of the freezer, you know.

Now, here’s the height of irony on two counts:

  1. On March 1, The New York Times reported that top EU governments trashed the idea of ponying up to bailout newer, Eastern members. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is facing elections this fall, rejected it soundly.
  2. In the midst of the AIG bonus scandal — on the Ides of March no less — AIG reported a much larger and equally-controversial giveaway: some $49.5 billion to 22 banks, 16 of which are foreign, many European, including UBS, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale. (Oddly, this story went virtually unnoticed in the fog of the bonus scandal, but for limited coverage in such reliables as The Gray Lady.)

So let’s sum up: a Czech leader, who also happens to head the EU, is gaming Obama and America because his own neighbors, like Germany, whose banks received mucho American cash via the AIG bailout, won’t ante up.

And what’s worse is this plays the hell card as the world’s house of cards teeters on the brink. Nice! (and like Elaine’s boyfriend Jake on Seinfeld, I eschew exclamation points).

P.S. Reactions to this news can also be found on the Fayetteville Observer blog.

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Power from the people

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My friend Richie manages the Philippe Starck Building across from the New York Stock Exchange. They have a $23-million condo that’s wanting for a buyer (poor billionaires). I asked him if anybody was jumping from the windows yet. Apparently not.

The Sunday morning news coverage of the public furor over the AIG bonuses was instructive, if predictable, including David Gregory and company on Meet the Press on NBC, which was followed by Chris Matthews, who polled his panel on whether the bonus fallout would hamper Obama in his push for further bank-bailouts. The results were rather measured considering Congress’ need to sate the public outcry.

Let’s not underestimate the true meaning of the public anger. Certainly, the $165 million in AIG bonus payouts (although the Connecticut A.G. today ups that estimate to $218 million) can be seen as the proverbial straw, it is no less significant that other turning-point straws that fill the history books: the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, Pearl Harbor, and “remember the Maine” or the “shot heard ‘round the world.”

That said, here’s what I think is happening and what will ultimately solve Wall Street’s excesses: the power of the people.

While that sounds quaint at first blush, people power is the latest disruptive technology, and it will rule Wall Street in the coming years the same way it has reshaped the music industry, the film and television industries, the advertising industry and the news industry. It is a force that is even larger than Wall Street.

Here’s what’s changed: I call it the trust factor. Since the industrial revolution (and certainly earlier), industry, the media and government controlled information. They may have taken the temperature of the public along the way and had to proffer lip service to obtain votes; but, collectively, they dictated the message. They had us having to trust them concerning how to conduct our affairs. I could put together a string of corporate slogans here, but I think you get the point.

Over the past decade, the trust factor has been turned on its head as the Internet has leveled the playing field, first flattening the music industry, then steadily rolling over several others.

Now, the curtain has been pulled back on Wall Street, and the complex and secretive way it has conducted business. When everyone was benefiting from the current model, big banks and insurance giants could get away with their Ponzi-style instruments.

But no more. The public trust has been broken, never to return. Now, the public will have trust flow from the public to the corporate world, in full. Its beginnings were sown in the corporate facebook pages we see today. I believe a new, disruptive model will be forged naturally from these events.

I suppose that’s a hopeful way to look at this mess we’re in. But isn’t that the same model that now elects our Presidents.

Oh, one more note on hope — some songs to help us through: Tom Paxton’s “I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae” and my own “We’re America.”

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Woody Guthrie, Eliot Spitzer, where are you?

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We need Woody Guthrie. We need Will Rogers. Maybe the song “We’re America” can help save the economy and even Obama along the way, since I fear the current pandemic over A.I.G. and its bonus-spree could actually bring the President down, maybe not tomorrow, but by the end of his first term. Why? Because this has now become an official history-book style scandal, one that may just be worthy of a few paragraphs in the digital tome of some fifth grader circa 2030. Just watch CNN for an hour, any hour; just wade through today’s New York Times, USA Today; name your poison. Consequently, my quotes of the day:

Maureen Dowd really got her Irish up in today’s column in the NY Times. She gave some sage advice on just what Obama should tell A.I.G.:

We stopped the checks. They’re immoral. If you want Americans’ hard-earned cash as a reward for burning up their jobs, homes and savings, sue me.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said:

Their (A.I.G.’s) mythology starts with the false premise that these are irreplaceable geniuses.

Yes, I quoted the opportunistic Andy Cuomo (love his dad, though). But maybe what we need now are some tough prosecutor types. How about we recruit the NY AG, Janine Pierro, Nancy Grace and Eliot Spitzer (forget the hooker, we’re talking mercenaries here). How’s that for a goon dream-team. We’ll give ‘em all Louisville sluggers and send them knee-cap hunting over to the London countryside where the A.I.G. execs roam. It’ll only cost us $160 American for the lumber; the chutzbah comes free.
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