The New York Times has published a resignation letter submitted yesterday by an employee of the AIG Financial Products division – An employee on the bonus list who was apparently not involved with any of the group’s credit default swap disaster. This letter gives some interesting insight into how the current situation negatively impacts individuals who were not responsible for the current mess and have been working hard to right the company.
I know I’m looking like a big AIG apologist at this point, but I remain fascinated by the manner in which this situation has been handled. The blunt, knee-jerk, overly politicized approach to these AIG bonuses has certainly done a lot more immediate and future damage than any reduction in compensation that might result from it. I know it’s easier to judge in retrospect, but I think we’d be much better off if our politicians drafted strong, reasonable regulations BEFORE we give these companies money and then allow the companies some leeway on how to compensate their employees. I think they have a little better frame of reference for making that call.
Sure, a couple fat cats at the top are always going to get paid way more than they deserve for doing a mediocre job. I wish that wasn’t the case. But if, in the course of shaming these companies and building political capital, we legislatively crap on the people who are working their asses off to get these companies healthy again – The people who might just be our best chance of getting these companies to the point where they are capable of beginning to pay the taxpayers back some of the money they borrowed, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. Obama, please straighen this silliness out. What happened to “using a hatchet where you need a scalpel”? I don’t think it only applies to federal spending freezes…
Dear A.I.G., I Quit – NY Times.com
It’s a beautiful day today — perfect for the first road bike ride of 2009. I’ve been running for the last couple months and usually wait until spring to start biking again. April will probably be 50/50 biking and running. After that, I should know whether my decrepit ankles are going to allow me continue running this year. Ultimately, I’d love to do some summer and fall adventure racing.
Today, I did the ‘Arlington Loop’, which includes a nice new section that follows Four Mile Run stream from W Glebe Rd into Shirlington. It’s a nice smooth, direct route but bypasses a decent hill and cuts a little mileage off the ride, so I guess i have to ride extra now to make up for it. 
There were lots of happy people out riding, running, and entertaining their kids. It’s not to late to get out and enjoy it today.
The Arlington Loop
This morning’s run took me into DC so I could check out the National Marathon. A little chilly but at least it’s sunny this weekend! By the time I got there, most of the half marathon runners had already finished and the back of the marathon pack was heading down Constitution Ave. I walked up Constitution and around Capitol Hill for a bit before taking the Metro back to Arlington.
Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com published a rational look at the AIG bonus situation that you’re not going to get watching TV. This site is usually really great, especially if you’re a nerd and interested in politics. If you’re at all upset or interested in this situation, you should definitely read this article. It’s quite good.
Why AIG Paid the “Bonuses”
While I feel the AIG bonuses are as obscene as the next person, I also think we’re falling into an endless cycle of fixating on the most inflammatory 1% of the problem at hand and wasting time and energy that could be spent on the more critical 99%.
The auto manufacturer CEOs flew private jets to DC. How indulgent! Or would the two days they wasted driving hybrids down for round two been better spent doing their job and saving their companies potentially many times more money than those flights cost. Hmmm. If they were actually capable of doing their jobs well, my vote is for the jet.
Earmarks are so bad, budget deficits are so bad….now that Democrats are in control and it’s easy to call them out for it. They love to tax and spend, so they must be fleecing us taxpayers, right? Would the ~2% of the stimulus devoted to earmarks have consumed every Republican utterance to the media in previous years when they were the majority? Everybody loves earmarks. Might this just be politics?? Might there be something else we could be doing with our time? I bet most of us enjoy the fruits of earmarks on a regular basis. Maybe that nice park down the street was made possible through an earmark? Even if it is a lie that there’s an earmark specifically to build a high speed train from Disneyland to Las Vegas (disgracefully being discussed as recently as this past Sunday – shame on you Eric Cantor), this train sounds super sweet! I’d take a trip out there if I could conveniently enjoy roller coasters, the magic of Disney, gambling, and exotic entertainment, all in one trip, without even having to rent a car. Maybe this would stimulate the economy after all?
AIG was contractually obligated to pay those bonuses. It’s a sad situation but the recipients aren’t going to say “Oh, I feel kinda bad now, just keep it”. Not in this economy. Now we’re wasting more time and money trying to figure out how to punish them in an effort to appease the enraged public. If left enraged, there won’t be enough public support for the next trillion dollars we’re going to need to spend to turn this economy around. So let’s penalize AIG and make them pay us back. Oh wait, AIG is 80% government owned now. So we’re penalizing ourselves? Good plan, I feel better.
To fix this mess we’re in, it’s going to take our elected officials and the media getting past all the posturing and attention mongering. It’s going to take the rest of us realizing that we’re being distracted by the agendas of those who might have more to gain by not doing what’s right for general public. Realistically, this will all continue. Hopefully the result will be limited to a lengthening of the recovery process. The administration is going to be putting forth additional, obscenely expensive programs in an effort to get us headed in the right direction. It sounds like there will be much less of a chance I’ll be living in an abandoned vehicle and foraging for food if we keep focused on the big picture and let them do their work.
Hope everyone is enjoying St. Patrick’s Day. I celebrated earlier today with the traditional Irish lunch pictured below. Should give me an extra boost on my evening run…
You may have caught references to the ‘feud’ between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer that’s been going on recently. Stewart has spent the last week calling out CNBC for selfishly turning a blind eye to suspicious CEOs and financial practices while knowingly fueling the hype that led to the current economic crisis. Clips of Cramer have been a large component of Stewart’s commentary and Cramer has been publicly defending himself on NBC affiliate networks over the last few days. Yesterday, Cramer went on The Daily Show for an extended interview. Jon Stewart conducted what I thought was a fair and rather devastating discussion in which Cramer was largely without argument and seemingly apologetic. I do think the mainstream media has gotten to the point where getting the viewer’s attention and holding it in the face of so many other distractions has risen well above what we naively assume is a mandate to actually dig into the backstory and occasionally call out the people who earn them their ratings and who not-so-indirectly finance their industry. Many will discount personalties like Jon Stewart and Stephan Colbert as simple entertainers opportunistically editing the day’s news into nightly comedy. I won’t deny that a lot of it is slanted, and hilarious. But the mere fact that this type of program (or any program) can step up and foster this manner of conversation is a beautiful thing and extremely refreshing. The employment of logic and constructive criticism seems all but lost these days, but might just be on the rise. I’m liking it.
Below is the unedited interview in 3 parts. It is absolutely worth a watch:
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The weather has taken a drastic turn and I thankfully got to spend most of the weekend outside! On Sunday, I went biking on the Mount Vernon trail with Molly, Pam, and Patrick. We started at Belle Haven Park and rode down to Mount Vernon and back. It was fairly cloudy but almost 80 degrees! Afterwards, we stopped in Old Town Alexandria to get a late lunch and walk around for a bit. At the waterfront area, there was a bird rescue group with a booth set up. For a donation, they’d let you take pictures with the birds. It was awesome and I think I need a parrot now. I’m sure the cats would love it…
A storm rolled through DC last night and I woke up this morning to what looks like 6-7 inches of snow. Pretty much everyone freaks out in DC when this happens and most of my company seems to be working from home today, including me. Here are a couple picures. I expect things to be relatively back to normal tomorrow once the plows get around. The main roads seem to be fine.
On Sunday, I went with a group of ten on the second annual Naked Mountain Winery – Lasagna Lunch adventure. Snow was predicted for later in the day which seemingly kept a lot of people home and resulted in us having the place almost all to ourselves. The lasagna and mounds of garlic bread were great. The “X-treme” brownies, not so extreme. Afterwards, a smaller group of us stopped by Linden Vineyards on the way home for some additional wine tasting. We even made it back before the real snow started. A few more photos here.
