So the starting price tag to tax-payers for the AIG bailout is $700billion. It's likely to go much higher, especially when the auto companies, foreign banks, Gulf coastal insurers, etc stick their hands out too. Where does it end? One thing's for sure, there had better be complete 100% transparency and oversight as to where exactly this money goes. If there's even a hint that it might be going toward executive compensation packages then every member of Congress who voted for it should be thrown in jail. I swear, with every new story I watch or read about this mess, I get more and more furious. I'm almost to the point of thinking that every one of these companies should have been allowed to completely crash and burn. I realize that would mean that a lot of people would lose their homes, investments, savings, etc but, these people had no business buying homes to begin with, their investments should have been more diversified, and their savings should have been in seperate insured accounts.
I don't agree with John McCain that executive salaries should be capped at $400K. That's a market function but, the market should certainly tie compensation with performance, liquidity, stock price etc. The stock-holders can vote that very easily. If the executive doesn't like it, work somewhere else. Then when he drives that company into the ground, nobody will hire him unless he accepts those terms of employment. And these multi-million dollar golden parachutes have to stop. Otherwise where's the downside for these guys when they destroy a company and the wealth of all it's stockholders?
If somebody can convince me that letting Lehman Brothers, Fannie and Freddie, AIG, Detroit Big-3 Auto, Morgan-Stanley, Merrill-Lynch, etc, go under is bad, I'll be glad to listen. Otherwise, let 'em die.
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