Gunning Down The Notorious A.I.G.

Shane Croft
Windermere, FL

"Fortune soon tires of carrying anyone long on her shoulders" -Baltsar Gracian

Ah, the good old U.S. of A.  One nation, under God, indivisible.....  A creator, carrier, and mother of so many great fortunes.  As a people, we tend to forget the many trials and tribulations that this nation has experienced at such a young age.  Maybe we forget because so few are still alive that were part of the "great" tragedies of WWI, WWII, the first Great Depression, and certainly the Civil War, and War for Independence.  The men and women of this nation's history have made many sacrifices that today would seem impossible for us to bear.  Will we face them again?  Of course.  The question is how soon, how long, how many of us, and how will it all unfold?  These questions my dear reader cannot be answered.

And when will the mother country tire of carrying the good fortunes of so many?  Well, right now she is looking a little sluggish, wobbly kneed, and worn down.  Like a prostitute after a long week's work at Mardi Gras whose services were paid for with IOU's of people she does not know, nor care to remember.  What will she do to recover?  Is there hope?  What will China her pimp say at collection time?  My friends, there is always hope for recovery and a cure, but the time frame to be completely healed is unknown.

Leadership is our best and quickest hope but that is where we run into a problem straight away.  Whether you want to believe it or not, the game is fixed.  The competition is rigged from opening day to the championship game, and you and I are outsiders from the minor leagues.

Let's look at a stellar example: the AIG payout and bonus "scandal".  This is politics at its very best - it is actually criminal humorous when you understand the full story.  Here is the one minute version: Former Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, was Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs before going to Washington.  Goldman Sachs is owed billions upon billions of dollars from AIG.  AIG goes broke.  Paulson writes a government check for $86 billion to AIG before the bailouts even begin.  The money is given away without anyone else's approval, and it cannot be reviewed or rejected by any government body.  Those checks now total close to $200 billion written to AIG.  All hail King Henry!!

Hmmmmm.........let's see here.  Could Paulson (and his cronies) be protecting their own friend, assets, or net worth at Goldman Sachs?  Nah.  They wouldn't do that (but I suggest you do some research as to how many high ranking government officials are actually tied to Goldman Sachs before drawing a conclusion on this matter).

So, how do slick politicians draw attention away from the personal government bailout that just occurred?  They kick and scream about the senior executives at AIG taking bonuses!  It is such a great ploy.  The Washington insiders pretending to be angry and representing the "outrage" of the US taxpayer.  In front of the cameras they howl "you can have the people's money, but you better not take too much for yourselves" (meaning you better use it to take care of us by keeping our net worths in tact, and yes, you can give it back in the form of campaign donations).  Folks, politicians do not give one wit about the US taxpayer.  If they did (and I will borrow a line from Senator Grassley) "they would take that deep bow and either resign or commit suicide".  I say both - in that order.

Now for you Libertarians out there, a VERY scary precedent was set this week during the midst of this.  Congress has now shown they are willing to directly legislate away your income if they don't agree with you.  After less than an hour of debate, the House passed a bill that would impose a 90% tax on the bonuses given to employees of companies that received over $5 billion in government bailouts.

And while it is certainly easy to agree with and understand such action, this is incredibly alarming when you look at the possible broad implications.  Of all people, Jay Leno pointed out these implications directly to the President when he visited his show earlier this week.  I am paraphrasing here: "you start a business the government does not like, or disagree with the government in any way, and they can legislate you into financial non-existence if they so desire".  Folks, that is terrifying (regardless of what happened with AIG).

So back to our original question: when will the USA grow weary of carrying the good fortunes of so many?  I believe we are very close to those crossroads in our nation's lifespan.  The quandary is actually both simple and common to civilizations: too few people at the top control the masses for their own personal gain.  However, there is no reason for us to fear or become disheartened.  This is how every single civilized society on the face of the earth has evolved.  And eventually the people of that society tire of it themselves, and a revolution takes place.  And as citizens of the greatest nation on earth, we will hope and pray for a peaceful one at the voting booth.

And for a final, and certainly more amusing subject to explore, Countrywide is suing AIG for not covering losses it insured for their loan portfolio.  And AIG is suing Countrywide for misrepresenting what was in the loan portfolio.  This is almost too wonderful to watch.  It is like a shrew, that if left alone long enough, will slowly eat itself.

So what's the good news? Maybe these knuckleheads on Wall Street that caused all of the problems will not make millions and millions of dollars after the government takes it away.

And the bad news? The government just legislated away someone's income - poof !!

"Power does not corrupt men.  Fools however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power" - George Bernard Shaw

Shane Croft is writer of The Good News Bad News Blog http://goodnewsbadnewsblog.com/