Elana Centor
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Son-Noah.Daughter-Berit. Dog-Uma Thurman. One of my first assignments as a TV reporter in 1973 was to get an interview with Elvis Presley. Obviously,...
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Did The AIG Bonuses Start An Economic French Revolution?

March 19, 2009 3:59 pm by Elana Centor in Career
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Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast described American's reaction to the news of the millions of dollars in "Bonus" money for AIG executives as an economic French Revolution. Brown made the statement during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Visualize guillotines and heads rolling down the street.

Others are calling it a lynch mob mentality. During the senate hearings on Thursday,AIG CEO, Edward Liddy shared some of the death threats to AIG Executives.

The threat to employees at AIG is very real.

Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban Connecticut offices of
AIG Financial Products, the division whose exotic derivatives brought
the insurance giant to the brink of collapse last year. Inside, death
threats and angry letters flooded e-mail inboxes. Irate callers lit up
the phone lines. Senior managers submitted their resignations. Some
employees didn't show up at all."It's a mob effect," one senior executive said. "It's putting people's lives in danger."

                                                                   Washington Post

That didn't seem to influence the New York Post which listed the names of some of the Bonus Recipients with photos today.  Did the paper cross a line?
 If the media is aware that people's lives are being threatened, is there any responsibility to protect people from potential harm?

The Daily Sandbox doesn't have a problem with mob rule.

There are times when I truly believe that "Mob Rule" (mob as in angry
crowd) is appropriate. Quite honestly there is also nothing more
satisfying then directing our anger into thinking up creative solutions
for recovering part of the $185 Billion in taxpayer funds we’ve
provided AIG so far.

I have a big problem with it. While I don't have visions of the French Revolution, when I hear mob rule, I  do  have visions of  thousands of Germans during Nazi Germany.Lifelong nightmares are hard to get rid of.

As for the employees, they are scared.

Remaining employees in AIG's financial products group are worried that the angry America mob will tear them limb from limb.

They are also disgusted at how they've been stabbed in the back by their former colleagues (who have long since departed), the president, the country, and the media.  They're busting their butts to get taxpayers some money back, and they feel like they're living inside a pinata.
                                                             Cluste

What I do know is that scapegoating 73 people isn't going to bring our economy back.If you listen to the "experts" they will tell you that the bonuses are such an infinitesimal part of the bailout that putting this much focus on these individuals is really a sideshow to the bigger issues.

Laurie Bennett at Muckety has an interactive map to demonstrate why it's almost impossible to allow AIG to fail. The map allows you to see all the various connections.
AIG Connections