$$$ Dissecting the A.I.G. Bonus Contract [Dealbook]
$$$ The Layoff Game [The Deal]
$$$ Apparently there's going to be a protest at GS tomorrow. [TBTE]
$$$ Piedrahita's checkered past [GofaG]
$$$ Level the Field, a non-profit that seeks to develop partnerships between collegiate athletic programs and middle schools in order to create a mentoring program for adolescent students in low-income communities, will be hosting an open bar fundraiser at 1Oak on April 16. Purchase tickets here today and help touch the lives of approximately 80 sixth graders in the fall and many more in the future.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 7:15PM
Level The Field is an amazing organization... plus if you go to their fundraiser you get into 1OAK with open bar for a pretty cheap price - do a good deed and buy a ticket!
Posted by Garuda , Mar 18, 2009 7:50PM
Bess with an actual public service announcement that's the real thing.
I'm very impressed.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:08PM
Suggestion to those participating in the protest at GS tomorrow: Wear T-shirts with the dollar amount of all the taxes you paid for 2007. By doing so, you will help people understand why you are so passionate and outraged by the egregious behavior of Wall Street.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:23PM
Ha, great idea. Although, you assume that a bunch of socialist hippies who don't know shit about shit could actually afford a plain white undershirt.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 9:32PM
ha, ha ..evidently a bunch of ivy league bankers don't know how soon they will be modeling orange jump suits.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 10:09PM
hysterical. a bunch of public school bus drivers and government workers are really going to stick it to those overpaid execs. That will teach them. What a shitshow.
make sure you toss a quarter or two into their coffee cups when you walk into your office.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:03PM
Level The Field is a legit organization. The founder taught in the South Bronx for three years and she has seen the problems in the classroom first hand. Buy your tickets, I hear they are having soccer ball jugglers on the side walk.
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:25PM
From the legal side, re: AIG bonuses:
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/when-bonus-contracts-can-be-broken/
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:28PM
Meanwhile in other news, the Fed has started monetizing the federal debt. While everyone was protesting at AIG in Washington, several helicopters owned by Ben Bernanke were seen taking off from the offices of the New York Fed.
Does anyone else think this AIG bonus flap was intentionally started this week?
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:32PM
lets start naming names...lets these bastards come forward and defend themselves...
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:33PM
tardbucket@9, it was written about here today but thanks for the super secret intel
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:39PM
cassano...frost...leary...ackert...haas...liebergall....come out, come out, whereever you are
Posted by Last Man Standing , Mar 18, 2009 11:43PM
how come there are a dozen protests in NH and only one in NYC?
Posted by guest , Mar 18, 2009 11:44PM
I think it's time to go short Geithner.
Posted by guest , Mar 19, 2009 12:03AM
Regarding the dissection of the AIG bonus contract, Davidoff's analysis is lame.
Read the contract for yourself:
Section 3, paragraph 3.04, sub (b) on page 7 says that bonuses don't have to be paid if employee is fired for cause prior to actual payment of said bonus. "Gross negligence" is a listed "cause". Hello...does anyone think that recklessly and irresponsibly losing a zillion dollars and tanking the company does not rise to the level of gross negligence? Liddy obviously doesn't.
There's also the part in 3.04, sub (a) that says bonus doesn't have to be paid if prior to payment, the employee is transferred more than "fifty miles from his present location". Hello again...Only numbskulls like Liddy and Davidoff couldn't find this one.
Good Grief! The real asskicker today was when Liddy said that AIG-FP needed to keep those people around because they knew how to unwind those nasty derivative positions. Hello for a 3rd time...I'm sure that Liddy could find a large, skilled group of unemployed Wall-Streeter, DB-reading cretins who would love to get a shot at part of that $163M. They'd probably do a damn good job too. The money's better spent on them as well, rather than on the turds who caused the problem in the first place.
TGFD will say it again. Liddy is a f'n red-faced, incompetent, lying, weasel asshole who should be fired immediately and forever banished from decent society.
The Guy from Delaware
Posted by guest , Mar 19, 2009 1:13AM
TGFD,
I agree with your analysis of the situation. You might be a little harsh on Liddy, but he does bear a lot of the responsibility for the resulting shit-storm. Jeez, I think that the American public might have even given this a pass if the bonuses had been variable and tied to some kind of metric regarding the successful closing of the AIG-FP's derivatives book. Unfortunately, though, AIG chose the most stupid, inefficient incentive structure ever: high, guaranteed pay based on no metrics! And now everyone will suffer once a constitutionally sound, and therefore broad, clawback tax is passed that applies to the bonuses rewarded by all of the TARP dependent institutions.
Posted by guest , Mar 19, 2009 2:01AM
TGFD,
Oh ya, almost forgot, to round out the gross negligence theme we have the following interesting blog post:
"I remember sitting in on a meeting with an AIG portfolio manager sometime in early 2007 where the topic of conversation was the corporate CDS market. It was a standard chat where we talked about the market environment as well as the most recent product innovations.
Though mostly unmemorable, there was one moment in the meeting that I will never forget. As the marketing guys were pitching mezz tranches to the PM, I threw in a comment that if credit spreads were to widen the delta of the tranche would go up thus increasing the mark-to-market (MTM) sensitivity, and thus net credit exposure, of the trade. This the PM calmly brushed aside responding 'we are not MTM sensitive' as he reached for another piece of fruit.
How about them MTM-apples now?
In this post I thought it would be interesting to touch upon a couple of issues that were brought to light from the AIG fiasco. These are: wrong-way counterparty risk management plus the actual (if, surprising to some) nature of risk that AIG was underwriting."
http://www.acredittrader.com/?p=65
Posted by guest , Mar 19, 2009 2:26AM
As soon as bailout money shows up for my state I'm going to call my elected officials and accuse them of being idiots and demand they give up their pay for not performing.
"We are in a recession and this occurred on your dime."
"You're the idiot who voted yes on the legislation that legalized this type of 30 to 1 leverage back in December of 2000 under Clinton. I want you to give up all your pay going back 8 years"
Posted by guest , Mar 19, 2009 3:22AM
How is the past of the father of the son-in-law of Walter Noel newsworthy?
Posted by guest , Mar 19, 2009 8:32AM
19- quit being so uppity. Like you have anythign better to do...
Posted by guest , Mar 19, 2009 8:26PM
Thanks Level the Field for your hard work and determination to make a difference to young kids.
I especially like your graphics on the web site. Good job!!
Posted by guest , Mar 19, 2009 10:05PM
We need more opportunities in this world like Level The Field.
I believe our kids can do well in life when they get such opportunities.
The web site is exciting. I liked the balls growing out of the flowers. Great idea.