Are you and I paying attention to the latest news of the bailouts going on in the United States? We should be ashamed of ourselves if we do not pay attention.
American taxpayers are now forced to reward incompetence. That's the most recent ethical failure of the financial crisis that affects us and future generations right now.
How can it be that we are forced to reward incompetence in the first place, by bailing out AIG? It is what it is because of the incompetence in these matters of those who struck the AIG bailout deal.
Who led the deal and voted for it? People elected by " the people" to serve all the people by sitting for an elected term or terms in the U. S. Congress.
This is not a political matter. It is an ethical matter. The privilege of being voted to serve in Congress is being abused by the privileges Congress is taking upon itself to pass legislation carelessly, recklessly, and incompetently.
This is not personal. It is a matter of facing the facts of behavior, judgment, and final decisions. It is a matter of wise judgment and responsible leadership, or lack of all of these.
Today, AIG (American International Group Inc) readies itself to award million-dollar-plus bonuses. These millions are targeted, by contract we are told, for AIG people that are part of the company's financial division's mishandling of funds and subsequent financial failure. Without taxpayer billions, that failure would have, we are told, resulted in total collapse of one of the largest U. S. and international financial entities.
On March 8, 2009, Toni Reinhold of Reuters news service wrote: "The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that about $50 billion of more than $173 billion that the U.S. government has poured into American International Group Inc since last fall has been paid to at least two dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions (emphasis added)."!
Fifty billion dollars of $173 billion taxpayer dollars marks a second recent unethical choice by AIG. And the Executive [President and Treasury Secretary] and Legislative [U. S. Congress] branches of the U. S. Government are deeply and terribly complicit in it.
Apparently, in addition, they asked no questions about existing AIG contractual arrangements when they purchased, with our tax dollars, majority ownership of AIG. Could you sell part of any property you may own without being required, by the buyer, to reveal any liens or other contractual ties or liabilities involving that property?
I don't think you could, yet that is exactly what the U. S. Congress got us into by failing to find out with deliberate thought and action, the existing obligations of AIG. That is what the U. S. Congress got you and me into when every member who agreed with AIG bailout dropped the ball. By not taking the time to attach the conditions of one of the largest tax expenditures in U. S. history to one company, the Executive and Legislative branches failed us.
Indirectly or directly, the U. S. Congress along with the President and Treasury Secretary made it possible for AIG to use bailout monies to reward employees and to make loans to foreign institutions using our tax money. It's such a mess I cannot even remember if President Bush or President Obama was in office at the beginning of what the new President has moved forward to promote and build. We do know that the present members of the U. S. Congress who agreed with this bailout without asking any signficant questions or getting any significant assurances failed the people.
The odd thing is that Congressional committees seem to love to hold public hearings. At such hearings, they interrogate and scold. Why, then, did they not investigate AIG's details, including the existing executive contracts and bonuses?
Therein lies the giant carbuncle on the Executive and Legislative noses. Congress, voted in by us to represent the people's interests, was the body of last resort, and they failed, through strong talk and weak actions. A majority of individuals serving in Congress went along with the AIG bailouts. They approved, by legislative vote as well, all but one bailout proposed since early last fall. Theyu approved the mild revisions to the one bailout that did not make it on the first round of voting.
The facts lead citizens to deduce that the majority of individuals in Congress love to legislate rather than to deliberate or to anticipate carefully enough.
With the legislation came the absence of specifics. Instead of requiring AIG to do what you or I would have to do when getting a loan, the people of the U. S. Senate and the U. S. House of Representatives failed. They failed to require what you or I would have to do: to sign an agreement of exactly what the loan is for, the specific terms of the loan, and the payback terms, as well.
Increasingly, we see the U. S. Congress, both houses-Senate and House of Representatives-fail us and help wealthy financiers. Even as the banking and finance committee chairpersons and other committee leaders and majority spokespersons speak about responsibility, they neglect to require the basic terms that you or I would have to abide by. They show a gross neglect of responsibility.
I do not like to speak of the U. S. Congress in this way. Yet, like the failing Roman Senate in the times of the Roman Caesars, they dither while making loud noises. Their dithering makes us rewarders of irresponsible people and institutions.
In addition, recently I read that the U. S. Congress was legislating a pay raise for themselves in the midst of this national and international financial crisis.*
Do you know how far into debt you are as a taxpayer? Do you know how far into debt your children or other relatives are as taxpayers? Do you know how far into debt the future generations, of which politicians speak so intensely, are being pushed every day that these Congressional actions continue?
Do you believe it is over yet, this kind of Congressional rewarding of incompetence? Do you think they deserve a raise, if they, Congress, are incompetent in these matters?
Do you want to be forced to continue to reward the incompetence of AIG and others as well as the incompetence of the U. S. Congress, its leaders in the House and Senate, and every member who votes for these bailouts without requiring any specific agreements from those receiving billions of dollars we do not have?
AIG is not the only body being rewarded for incompetence, but how do the American people, short of a 21 st Century Tea Party, get the real attention of the President, the Treasury Secretary, and the U. S. Congress members?
AIG has powerful company, the U. S. Congress that voted a fast "yes" to bailout without due diligence. The U. S. Congress persons voting "yes" to this bailout without conditions showed gross incompetence. The U. S. Congress leadership and membership who voted "yes" to the AIG bailouts are grossly incompetent by awarding bailouts without investigation of AIG liabilities and prior contracts. The U. S. Congressional leadership that led this bailout fiasco did so without attaching even one term or condition. Shame on the U. S. Congress persons that voted "yes" to spending billions and billions and billions of taxpayer dollars in such a way!
There are far more questions than answers right now.
*Update: Today it was reported that the Senate did not go along with its own automatic pay raise. Do you believe, as I do, that the public outcry is working? Now, let's see what the House leadership thinks and what that body, as a whole, does. Whatever they say, the proof will be in their actions.
Jean Purcell realized her salvation, very thankfully, in 1980 and is still learning of Christ. She wrote Not All Roads Lead Home under a pen name, Jane Bullard (1996;2004).Opinari Quarterly for Christian Writers, Publishing Professionals, Book Lovers, and Reviewers is a free newsletter-http://www.opinebooks.com/opinari.shtml, co-edited by Carolyn J. Hesson. Jean lives in Maryland USA. To know more about Christ, she recommends reading from the Bible with open mind. Isaiah 41 greatly influenced her return to God after a long wandering.
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Jane, we just had to take care of them first you know, no alternative and the next time we will put controls in, we promise you that. I just had to be a little sarcastic about these leaders who feign outrage. All one has to do is go down the list of who got the bling and there are many more abuses we never hear about. Good job. Best wishes.
Thanks, Robert. I love your first line. Unfortunately, right on the mark. Doesn't outrage often distract people from the facts? Best wishes to you, too, always. ~Jane Respond to this comment
While I don't think I'm as anti-bailout as you are, I definitely agree with your points about expecting the same level of accountability and responsibility of AIG as would be expected by us ordinary folk in getting a loan. As a former loan officer, I can tell you as a fact that NO lender will loan money to a perosn or on a property that has any kind of lien or judgement against it. Why should AIG be held to different standards- as a lender they should know better! But then again, when has corporate America and the big banks/ financial service industries EVER been held to the same standards as us? Heck, tell me where I can find someone to loan me money when I am in the hole and have no way of being able to pay it back? When I am continuing to hemorrage cash right and left? I can't think of any small business that would be rewarded like that. And with banks/ companies of this size and public exposure, NO ONE saw this coming and could do anything to prevent the damage? That's irresponsibility in action as well.
Your experience as a loan officer speaks volumes. I cannot figure why the Congressional banking and finance committees did not think of these basics before giving money away. I am not against bailouts, per se, but I have seen the government throw money away carelessly in these times. The most careless actions have been to fail to do fact-finding (due diligence) and timely deliberation before going into panic. I am sure that responsible banking includes preparation and fact-finding before loaning money or buying into an investment. I agree with your views on this failure to do the basics. AIG has to answer, and I hope Congress, those who voted so carelessly without terms attached, will also be pushed to answer too.
I appreciate your openness, so needed in these times of taking sides rather than having dialog. Thanks for your comments!
Jane I'm sorry for jumping in, look at who is running these committees -have you heard Dodd today? Are they not "the same old Washington Crowd"? Sorry but I'm just glad to see people getting upset. Now maybe they will do something about it? Once again sorry.
Great article. We the people are in serious trouble when we are told that a company is too big to fail. I hope we the American people have the good sense to vote these people out of office. God help us all.
I agree. I'm advocating that voters vote so as to cause 12-consecutive-years as a limit on all in Congress. They can stay out after that, and re-run the next term and see how it goes.
Apparently, public calls and e-mails to Congress are waking them up a little, but with no significant results yet. Most keep on doing the same old things!
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