Friday, March 20, 2009

Of Attitudes, scapegoats and Bonuses

AIG. What a story!! And is $165M, a mere 1% of the $170B that has been handed over to AIG worth all this noise? Is it the bonuses or just the exhaustive frustration that has taken over and is now leaking out in bits and pieces. Is this uproar healthy? Does it affect everything else? IS AIG actually real? And does anyone understand the reality of an AIG collapse? I'm discussing markets worldwide, to include Hng Kong and all of Europe. Does anyone know or recall the case study that was banks lending inappropriately. It comes with a very familar face. Donald Trump. Yes. Him. When economic classes teach about lending gone wrong, his billions of loans that forced the banks to service him to keep him afloat because his collapse would have meant their collapse is the subject matter. Irony to no end that this is the man at the head of the table in apprentice! only in America!

Anyway, for anyone who knows the Donald Trump story, that is the same situation happening with AIG. just that AIG is Trump multiplied by 1 and then many many zeroes. (Try putting in 170B in your calculator). So AIG has to stay afloat. For a while anyway. Until China figures out how to take the reins and shift the world economy to Asia as the fulcrum point. They are the only ones left with the power at this moment.

So the bonuses; part arrogance. Part habit. You get away with so much, you get used to it. And then you don't notice the wrong things as wrong anymore. Part, vaguely, necessity, at least implied. When wall street rocked, these people got used to bonuses as part of their income. So everyone who works deserves fair compensation. But inflated egos here, think that that compensation is still fair despite the mess we find ourselves in, thanks to their hard work. It would truly have been cheaper to pay them to stay at home over the past decade. The dictionary expresses clearly that a bonus is an additional compensation based on performance or earnings. At that juncture, AIG cannot explain their bonuses. Simple solution, new compensation contracts. Wages commiserate with the rest of the sectors. No bonuses. (and it would be nice if you hung your heads in shame).

Scapegoats? Edward Libby, AIG chair and CEO! What a day he had on Wednesday. And this for a man who took over a rotted to death AIG! And we wonder why worthwhile folks wont take up these challenges and help the situation. geithner? He should thank God that Barack has deflected that apathy onto himself. Cos this is a crowd of angry people who are looking for anything to kill, regardless of its guilt.

Irony in Kenya is this. To hear Raila completely disagree with the crazy demands for new elections. And his reasoning is so sound! I rarely find myself agreeing with this man, but I did here. And I was one person completely sure this coalition government would do nothing. But despite the madness of the masses ( Kenyans are their own worst enemies), this coalition is still one of the most functional governments I've ever seen. A government capable of averting a crisis when schools have no funds, deal with agriculture issues, specify and estimate the masses of people who are likely to face hunger in the next few months based on rainfall, still look into future developments such as the fibre optics cable and the highway to Ethiopia... I for one stand corrected. Don't get me wrong, this coalition government is too massive and the issues they have are many. However, I will give the devil his due. I wouldn;t have dared expect 20% of that from them.

The bickering cabinet ministers? Fire them immediately. Any good manager does not need an explanation from me for this assertion. However, I'll give it. A cabinet that is provided a forum to discuss issues, but chooses not to use it, instead beds our semi-illiterate and next to worthless media that cannot wait to sensationalize everything; but offers no pertinent education to issues; that cabinet minister has to go. the individual is too dumb to understand his role. His job is not understood, and the consequences of his actions are not clear to him. he must go. A cabinet position for a country is a 24 hour job as long as the member is in public. And there are respectful, meaningful and constructive ways to disagree while maintaining respectability for the outfit for which you work!

And the visa ban from the US! This might surprise you. I'm of the opinion that no one should be fired, EVER, based on this stupid act. It s tantamount to colonialism. There is nothing even remotely worth looking into here. It would be colossally stupid to hand over the power to determine which people serve our cabinets to another country based on visa bans. So anyone who antagonized them be it for the sake of good, could easily be eliminated. I say this often. The only opinion that has to matter in Kenya, is that of Kenyans alone. period. I hope one day everyone can understand that. So that they can develop intelligent opinions and self worth and better fellowship.

I can always go on. But I'll stop here, for now.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just a little correction: 165M is not mere 1% of 170B, but 0.1%, i. e. 1/1000. But the point is not how much are the bonuses out of the bailout; on one hand there's a question of legitimacy to pay even a penny to those who failed, on the other hand there's a question of losing those who came to AIG after the bailout to put it back in shape: will those people leave now with the 90% tax?
Take care,
Jay

Mimmz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mimmz said...

I stand absolutely corrected. That math was definitely off by a zero.

The 90% tax is not going to happen, I believe. That is the result of incensed congress persons who refuse to shelf emotions when making decisions. I know the masses were excited by the suggestion but it's rather preposterous on their part, don't you think?

Anonymous said...

Yes, it was altogether preposterous absurd and populist. What does worries me is that it actually passed.
Jay