[Premise: If the American Middle Class understood what has been done to it in the past few years, they would be setting up guillotines on Wall Street.]
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Lawmakers angered by posh AIG retreat
Associated Press
October 8, 2008
WASHINGTON - Less than a week after the federal government had to bail out American International Group Inc., the company sent executives on a $440,000 retreat to a posh California coastal resort, lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown said yesterday.
The tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees at the St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government that it needed to stave off bankruptcy.
The retreat did not include anyone from the financial products division that nearly drove AIG under, but lawmakers were still enraged over the thousands of dollars spent on catered banquets, golf outings and visits to the resort's spa and salon for executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary.
"Have you heard of anything more outrageous?" asked Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, noting that the bill included $23,000 for spa services. "They were getting their manicures, their facials, pedicures, massages while the American people were footing the bill."
2 comments:
So, let me get this straight...
Executives from a profitable part of a (until very recently publicly-traded) company have some sort of management retreat, and it's now Congress' job to go line-by-line through the budget of that event?
Maybe Congress ought to start with the billion-dollar line-items in the Defense budget. Then, when they get outraged about small beer in the budget of a company like AIG, they might have some credibility.
Classic case of posing for the cameras, and losing the forest for the trees.
You have a good point, but maybe appearances are the most important thing now. I'm totally in favor of the headhunting of these people. That's why I like the metaphor of the guillotine.
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