In their defense, A.I.G. said that they are contractually obligated to pay the bonuses in question. Not paying these bonuses, the company said, would cause their executives to leave the company and could trigger a collapse at A.I.G., which could set off a collapse around the world.
I am not sure if it was from this article: A.I.G. Using "Suicide Strategy" to Push Bonuses by Matt Renner TruthOut.org but it occurred to me that these bonuses were hush money. That is probably what is referred to above. But in my mind, trade secrets were not only a threat to the economy but also to the bubble blowing which was their job at AIG. And now "hush money" is more than just in my mind, but on Hardball in the AIG bonus backlash Rep. Gary Ackerman used the term. But that does nothing to topple my Humpty Dumpty allegory. Clarifying on 1600 Pennslvania Avenue Ed Schultz points out these are not performance bonuses but retention bonuses. That does not really buttress any charge as hush money, but it might be a good market indicator when such heavy bonuses are built in preemptively, and a preemptive indicator of market failure. And yet we have another controversy where charges are under defined, or interchanged as to what kind of bonuses are being talked about and the involvement of TARP.
[3-19-09 TARP updated and links added: AIG was prior to TARP and a look back.]
[Correcting an Impression (1): still confusion(2). My own missing (3) link.]
I may not be as confused as I think. Apparently $30 Billion latest AIG potential for drawdown has been caught in this confusion and is potential leverage. Who knew what when is still unclear and contradictory.(for 1,2,3 see continued.)
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