Working Life

My first reaction to AIG’s consideration of a suit against the government was like many people: what the fuck? You guys should all be in jail, not swimming along thanks to $182 billion in taxpayer bailout money. But, then, in retrospect, it makes sense.

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   This got lost in the shuffle last week but is worth highlighting: The legal drama surrounding the controversial takeover of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, one of the pivotal moments of the financial crisis, took a fresh turn on Thursday as the attorney general of New York leveled civil fraud charges against Kenneth […]

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   A fundamental right of a functioning democracy is the right of the people to know what the government is doing–particularly with the peoples money. Let’s not be naive: we all have lived through many chapters in the country’s history where we do not know, in advance or in real-time, what the government does in […]

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   A quick post today on the run…someone is going to have a nice holiday haul thanks to you (from The Wall Street Journal): American International Group Inc. is preparing to pay its outgoing general counsel Anastasia Kelly several million dollars in severance after she resigned over federal pay curbs, according to people familiar with […]

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   To understand how out of touch some of the people at the helm of large businesses are, consider the following contrast today. First, the nation’s ranks of unemployed–which have been swelled by the irresponsible behavior of, if I may quote the president, "fat-cat bankers"–are in dire straights: More than half of the nation’s unemployed […]

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   I do not think it was a coincidence that Goldman Sachs announced its drop-in-the-bucket $500 million fund to help small businesses yesterday. Because the most important news is a report issued by the government bailout inspector that says Goldman got a huge gift from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, led at the […]

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   Today brings news of more greed wafting across the country, as well as a tiny step towards sweeping out the stalls soiled by corrupt politicians. The bad, though typical news, finds yet another payday for Wall Street banks and lawyers who will reap almost a billion dollars for cleaning up the mess of AIG: […]

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   Those poor AIG executives–they must be pissed about getting all the heat from walking away with a paltry $165 million in bonuses while the folks at Merrill Lynch managed to cart away twenty times that amount just as the government was crafting its takeover by Bank of America.    Remember, Merrill had just posted […]

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   Look, I think it’s outrageous that these AIG guys are raking in huge bonuses. But, I thought that a year ago and ten years ago–as I’m sure a lot of you did. So, I’m a bit less impressed by the outrage expressed from the White House all the way down the food chain.    […]

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   Even though I’ve suggested that auto workers should not pay for the mistakes made by the industry’s executives, the drumbeat has been pretty persistent that the workers will take another hit. And it picks up in today’s New York Times: While the union has not agreed to reopen contracts at General Motors, Ford and […]

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