Jake DeSantis: Dear AIG, I Quit!

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Dear Curtis Booth, you're an idiot, and I pity the kindergartens you're teaching. In this capitalist economy nobody forced you to become a teacher did they? Please read few more articles before posting such critical claim.
With love,
Andrew

Andrew of CA 8:40PM September 27, 2009

poor baby did not get his million. welcome to the real world. As a school teacher, I will never see a million dollars in my lifetime. And, as far as, it was not your division, well my friend, you were in the same car as the bank robbers and spent your paycheck from there operations when they were profitable. Now that you have been tried and convicted in the public eye, you want to cry "i did not do it, it wasn't me." You know, it did not work for the Nazi high command, it is not going to work for you.

Curtis Booth of CA 4:28PM April 17, 2009

He is right on. The government has no right to ask for this money back from people who earned it legally.
Guard your liberty, you are next.

Tom Lesser of NY 8:00PM April 07, 2009

Not to start a fight with anyone but while I agree Execs get paid a ton of money, they generally don't decide their salaries. CEO's do not appoint the Boards unless they are a majority shareholder because the boards are decided on by the shareholders. In fact, CEO's are appointed by the board, who also decide the compensation and golden parachute given to the Execs. And execs think they're worth that much because that's what the market decided they're worth. It's just like professional athletes, movie stars, musicians, etc., if people didn't decide they were worth so much, they wouldn't be paid so much. Employment is similar to basic supply and demand curves and these guys are at the top. Also, in regards to AIG and the American car industry, I would love to see them fail, but unfortunately for us its more then likely not going to happen. The American car industry employs 1/3rd of the American population, can you think of some industry that's going to step up and fill the void? Why not look at the unions and what they're doing to the car industry as well? They have priced our industry out of the market and their unwillingness to bend during financial downturns is leading to the fall of another American industry. I'm not saying it's totally their fault though either. When the market said smaller and more efficient, they said no, we'll build bigger gas guzzlers and you'll like it. Anyways, that's all I had to say. Good luck to everyone in these tough times

Sean of NJ 10:35AM March 31, 2009

I don't know if most people understand a few principles of law and corporate governance. Execs spend every day with the threat of being sued for a breach of fiduciary duty. Not that the company will be sued, but they personally can be held responsible for all their actions. No average Joe employee has to worry about losing everything for a bad business call. Talk about stress.
Also, I think most people fail to remember that Execs are not randomly pulled out of a hat. It takes hard work and more importantly, good work. I am tired of our society trying to reward those who would rather slack with the fruits of diligent labor of others.
Furthermore, every day I hear another cry to hold people and business accountable. I agree, but get confused by the obvious double standard. We say, "You should be honest and ethical", but on the other hand would say "Don't honor your contracts and agreements."
Where does the line get drawn? And who has the luxury of deciding? Hopefully not the politicians who are more often than not seeking re-election over sound moral values. Just because the American people whine and cry doesn't mean that they know what a correct and practical solution entails.
Lastly, if Americans are so outraged by the high unemployment rate why are we angry with business men who create opportunities for others to work? There are people making far more money than an average Exec. Why do we continue to pay movie stars, rock stars, and athletes such exorbitant salaries? Is it just because they don’t have anyone under them to layoff so they are by default innocent money hoarders?
So lay off the Execs. Nobody complains when everything is perfect and they are creating thousands of jobs for people, but as soon as things get tough we throw a temper tantrum that would make a two year old blush. Grow up.

Jason of CO 12:26AM March 31, 2009

Your fears of class war are well founded. I agree that the gap in between the classes is growing. There is a book that I am currently reading that addresses this if you might be interested it is The Flight of the Creative Class by Richard Florida. I am not very far into the book yet but so far it speaks of how education is not the only thing that creates a productive economy, creativity is the driver for better jobs. He has critics from both sides of the political spectrum, but it seems to make sense. Think of all the innovations that we have today and how these innovations drive our economy.
I personally don't believe that AIG is too big to fail, but then that is just my opinion. Bailing out every corporation that comes to Washington D.C. asking for money has caused a serious moral hazard issue, it seems that their is now a parade of businesses that are crying for money. The same goes for all these financial institutions. It might cause some havoc in the short run, but the market will work it out. In the past weaker companies have failed and the stronger businesses that had strong balance sheets survived and thrived. Companies like GM could file bankruptcy and reorganize without government money. They will survive of they won't, at any point Toyota will still be around, would that be so terrible, especially since many are produced right here in the US. AIG is not our only company of it's kind. If it fails does it really mean that the sky will fall? 15 years ago doubt that I would have even known who AIG was. If Companies do take government money then it is only sensible that we limit their compensation of employees. My argument was that the executives in AIG's case were promised something and it was agreed upon. It is wrong to change the rules in the middle of the game. Next compensation contract tell them you are setting limits. If they wish to leave, nice knowing them.

Alan of AR 1:13PM March 29, 2009

I am not offended by the misspelling of my name. As for your comments, I am open to dialogue, we can both learn from each other. My question is can the Executives learn.
As for your son, do you realize he will have far more of a chance to be the 1 in 10 laid off than the CEO of a corporation. 1 in 10 people are currently without work. I don't know the answer, but my fear is there will be a class war; because of stupidity like Mr. Jake Santis that has no clue of the anger his letter would cause.
I am not for retroactive retribution, I do not believe Mr. Santis should be taxed 90%; but I am for limiting compensation to Execs who are at the root of this current crisis. I am not talking about Microsoft, if Bill Gates failed then his Corporation would fail, but the CEO's that are failing hold up the world economy and there are no consequences to them.
They set their own salary and they are protected from being fired because in their arrogance they don't think anyone, and I mean anyone, could do better them. That is just arrogance. I say let's get some MIT grads who are willing to work for $250,000 in there and let's see what happens.
The corporation will still run under the current rules because the worker bees will be there, someone new will be there to create new ideas, new rules and put a little bit more balance into these banks between CEO's and employee.

Kaybeth of TN 5:23PM March 28, 2009

I am not for Socialism, but had these Execs had any reality they would have known to start limiting some of their extravangaza, but they haven't learned therefore someone needs to set limits.
Anytime in history, there is a wide gap between the average and the elite then class warfare begins.
If the internet is correct, the CEO of JP Morgan and Chase last year made 27 million in total compensation. Yet, 10% of people are unemployed in some states, tent cities are popping up everywhere. The market has to correct itself or it will take government interaction. CEO's in banking all over are making millions, I personally know that where I work they laid off 1,000 last year, but yet our CEO made millions. Bonuses were cut for the average worker over 8 years ago.
These Execs are in cloud nine if they believe they are actually worth that much. Now, if you invent something or have put your own money at risk to open a company then maybe I can understand but even then not at the expense of your employees. But the banking CEO's were hired guns, the board does nothing because they are appointed by the CEO's they are there because they don't say "no".
Read a newsarticle from Friday on the Huffington Post that proves this, a board member said "no" and he was fired.

Kaybeth of TN 3:56PM March 28, 2009

My apologies, I did not mean to mess up your name

Alan of AR 3:54PM March 28, 2009

If you want me to say that these businesses are 100% on the up and up you won't here it from me. I believe that there is always probably going to be some degree of corruption in business. The United States is by far the most transparent in their business practices in my opinion. That is not to say that corruption does not exist, surely it does. I don't believe that it exists to the degree that you are suggesting. This whole mess started with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; quasi government agencies were politically motivated to loosen the standards by which home loans were made. As a result many of these loans started to default because people that were not good credit risks started to default and the loans had already gone through the process of securitization and become CMO's this process made it impossible to separate the bad loans from the good loans AIG's part part was to offer credit default swaps (that I don't believe were properly assessed for their risk) and when these default swaps started to be called in AIG came a tumbling down, at least this is my understanding. So Dave was AIG at fault? yes I believe so, was it intentional who knows. Funny thing, no one wants to talk about the role that the government played in this melt down, especially during the Clinton administration. Everything was alright as long as home values were increasing. Over extended credit holders simply refinanced their homes with their equity until the market became overvalued, then like a house of cards it all came tumbling down.
22 1/2 years in the military I have seen some things that were not always right. Let me tell you this my brothers in uniform are have awesome integrity, and I love them for what they have done. In war bad things happen, terrible things. I personally disagreed with our presence in Iraq and let me say that I did not serve in Iraq the second time, but I was over there the first time and I can vouch for the integrity of many that I personally knew that served during this war and it is something to behold. They deserve our profound respect. If you have never served in a combat zone, I would not expect you to understand, but they give up much for what they do and 99.9% do it with the utmost honor, integrity and sacrifice.

Alan of AR 1:53PM March 28, 2009