AIG execs get fiddles

If you want to know the mentality of corporate America and whether or not they are elitist punks just read this. I am telling you to vote the bail out politicians out as they and corporate America are all joined at the hip. Start talking loudly about Nader. That will scare the hell out of both parties.

The following was on Yahoo news:


AIG execs vacationed at resort
after 85-bln-dlr loan: lawmakers 1 hour, 36 minutes ago


WASHINGTON (AFP) - AIG executives escaped to a pricey California beach resort just days after the insurance giant was rescued by an unprecedented 85-billion-dollar US government loan, lawmakers said Tuesday.


"Less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation," Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The US Federal Reserve stepped in to save American International Group from imminent collapse on September 17, with a loan that gave the US government a stake of 79.9 percent in the insurance behemoth in exchange.

"Less than one week later, AIG held a week-long retreat for company executives at the exclusive St. Regis resort in Monarch Beach, California," Waxman said.

Invoices showed that AIG paid the Pacific Ocean getaway resort more than 440,000 dollars, Waxman told the committee on its second day of hearings on the Wall Street economic crisis.

The charges included close to 200,000 dollars for rooms -- which cost up to 1,000 dollars and more -- and over 150,000 for meals and 23,000 in spa charges, he said.

"Well, average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance," Waxman said, "We'll ask whether any of this makes sense."

Without the government loan, analysts had argued that an AIG collapse, fueled by problems with complex derivatives known as credit default swaps, could trigger a wave of failures in the global financial system and deepen the credit crunch.

Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland said Americans were upset by the news.

"It is very upsetting, because the American people are giving and say for example gave AIG some 85 billion dollars -- 85 billion dollars to bail them out," Cummings told CNN.

"On the 22nd of September to the 30th, they spent almost 400,000-something at a resort having manicures and playing golf," he added.

"That is the kind of thing that upset my constituents, many of whom are losing their houses and losing money in the 401(k)s (retirement savings plans)," he said.

"They are upset and rightfully so."