Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (45998)	11/30/2008 11:21:25 AM
From: Mac Con Ulaidh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Speaking of AIG - AIG Pulls Fast One -- "Cash Awards" Going To Managers When you are a pro at a scam--the definition of "scam" also can be found under the term "insurance industry" -- you know how to try to pull a fast one. And AIG is trying to pull one --under cover of the holidays. Check this out. You may remember that AIG -- which is afloat only thanks to a bailout by you, the taxpayer, to the tune of $152 billion and counting--made a whole lot of public relations when its top seven executives agreed not to take bonuses this year. Well, on the eve of Thanksgiving, obviously knowing the markets would be closed on the holiday and obviously knowing that just before the holiday few people would pay attention, AIG actually notified regulators that, well, yes, bonuses would be given out, as Bloomberg News and The Financial Times reports today: American International Group Inc., the insurer that said yesterday it scrapped bonuses for top executives after a U.S. bailout, will still pay 130 managers "cash awards" to stay with the firm, including $3 million to retirement services chief Jay Wintrob. Wintrob, 51, will get the "retention" payment in two installments, the first in April 2009 and the rest a year later, New York-based AIG said today in a regulatory filing. The firm previously disclosed the program in a Sept. 26 filing and said today that Wintrob and Chief Financial Officer David Herzog elected to get the payments four months later than planned. "The expectation from the public and Congress was that they weren't getting bonuses, not that they'd be pushed off by several months," said David Schmidt, a consultant at executive pay firm James F. Reda & Associates. "That clearly violates the spirit of AIG saying they'll forgo their bonuses."[emphasis added] From the FT: However, the UBS news comes just a day after it emerged AIG, which has received more than $150bn in bail-out financing from the US government, would still pay 130 managers "cash awards" to stay with the firm. AIG disclosed the bonuses in a regulatory filing on the evening before Thanksgiving, a day when US markets are closed. The insurer had previously said its seven top executives would forgo their bonuses for 2008. They just can't help themselves, can they? Call it "retention pay" or "cash bonuses" or some other euphemism -- but the fact is that your tax dollars are going to reward people who are lucky to even have jobs. There should have been a housecleaning that swept the entire top level of managers out on their asses for playing a role in the financial crisis that is hurting millions of people. I have not seen this reported in other mainline traditional media. But, this is a scam. huffingtonpost.com

To: koan who wrote (45998)	11/30/2008 11:38:07 AM
From: SouthFloridaGuy	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

Koan, you forget to mention that Silver is up $1 after being down 70%+ from wherever it was. The same can be said about most industrial commodities which were cracking way before the financial crisis. Plenty of people want to own U.S. debt. Plenty of people continue to own Japanese debt. They have more Gov't debt than us and greater default risk, please explain this. I've owned it because I don't want to own stocks from any region. 10 year rates are under 3% so this whole business of who wants to own U.S. debt and how are interest rates will go to 10%+ gets tiresome after 5 years of hearing it. Indeed that has happened on debt which has a risk of default which is the only risk the market cares about, but is not a risk to U.S. gov't debt, IMO. Will U.S. rates eventually rise. Sure, just like they did in the 70's. But that could be upward of 15 years from now and to worry about it at the present moment is like an obese man worrying about whether a healthy diet will cause him to lose too much weight. When 70% or so of the world's growth was built around the U.S. consumer, I'm not sure how exactly the world is better off than us since they were supplying us. It's like a drug dealer and crack addict relationship. The crack addict can be rehab'd (after going through much pain), but the drug-dealer is also out of business.

To: koan who wrote (45998)	11/30/2008 11:50:30 AM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

koan, here's a thought experiment for you. If every country is devaluing their currency to avoid deflation, then does any currency's value change relative to any other currency? The short answer is maybe not so much. If this is a global response to a global, synchronous recession, then the end state will be that everyone holds a less paper wealth, but the standard of living doesn't change for anyone. The complicated answer is that some countries, namely ours, will have to deficit spend and borrow more to avoid deflation, while countries like China will be able to use their reserves to avoid a recession. So coming out of this, China will not be borrowing from future growth, which means a recovery for them will take them back to a pre-recession growth rate, whereas a recovery for us will look tepid. Will the world collapse? No. Will there be a new financial world order coming out of this? Yes. We're moving into a multi-polar world, after 8 years of the US being the only super-power. Too bad we didn't use that brief moment in time to do some good with that power.