Get a Rope

We’ve been hearing so much about bailouts lately that one could easily get the impression that our entire government was spending most of its time down in the (metaphorical) bilges with a (metaphorical) bucket. Or, for that matter, that the Great Depression Part II was premiering, and our government was stepping in to prevent runs on banks and similar financial disasters that might end up with a third of the country out of work from now until the next major war. What’s actually happening is that the Federal government is taking a trillion or so of your dollars (that’s $1,000,000,000.00 if you’re keeping track at home) and giving it to the same people who created the current financial crisis, on the principle that not doing so would be even worse…

All right, I know it’s not actually the gift to the extremely wealthy that the far left would have you believe, but neither is it the populist measure for the greater public good that the far right is trying to describe. The situation does have at least some similarity to the financial crisis that President Hoover inherited in January of 1929, and it’s probably just as well that our current government is trying to come up with a better answer than the one the Hoover administration used (running around the Oval Office in circles making little shrieking noises and then pretending that nothing was wrong until the current term was up), since that didn’t work all that well last time. But the fact that none of those involved are going to be charged with criminal wrongdoing, none of those responsible are going to pay for their incompetence, no new legislation that could prevent future disasters like this one will be passed, and the people who made huge fortunes on predatory lending will now make even more money being bailed out from the resulting crisis is enough to make any thinking person want to get out the torches and pitchforks and storm the castle…

Then there’s the recent shenanigans from AIG, which may just make you want to get a rope. According to a story being reported today by ABC News Online, “Less than a week after the federal government committed $85 billion to bail out AIG, executives of the giant AIG insurance company headed for a week-long retreat at a luxury resort and spa, the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California.” The company spent more than $440,000 on the retreat, including over $200,000 for the rooms alone, with another $150,000 for meals and $23,000 for spa treatments. Now, in fairness, I imagine that screwing things up badly to require an $85 billion government bailout must be very stressful, and a nice week at the spa probably made these corporate criminals feel a lot better. But I resent them being permitted to do this on MY dime, and I hope you do, too...

Meanwhile, the article goes on to note, the corporate executives responsible for this outrage have all be given millions in termination benefits ($15 million for the ex-CEO alone). This would be disgusting in any time, frankly; it’s a complete violation of the trust placed in these swine by the stockholders, and they should all be tried for various criminal offenses. But coming as it does during a time of financial crisis, when many Americans are losing their homes and their fortunes, it’s completely infuriating. In the long run, this will probably get lost in the $700 billion we’re going to spent to make sure that the rest of the financial industry doesn’t implode and take our economy down with it, and in a few years probably nobody will even remember these corporate a-holes getting manicures on the public’s expense…

But somehow, I just can’t help but wish that they run across some of the people they’ve ruined in a dark alley somewhere – and that those aggravated Americans have a nice length of rope with them…