Rage Against the Machine: Sen. Grassley Urges Japanese Model for AIG Execs ("Resign, or Go Commit Suicide")

by Damozel | According to Politico,  Grassley then of course had to explain that he isn't literally calling for mass suicides all round:  he just wants to see a culture of "shame and responsibility."  The loud bitter post-partisan laughter you hear from stage left is coming from me: watching yet another Republican do what Republicans do when they see the consequences of their irresponsibility play out:  get extremely -- and uselessly -- "enraged." Yes, if the monster you helped to create rampages out of control and starts wreaking havoc on the countryside, just grab a pitchfork and run after him. Everyone will take you for just another outraged victim and not an accessory before the fact.   

Meanwhile, one taxpayer-dollar-compensated senior exec at AIG is worried about the "mob effect....putting people's lives in danger."   (WaPo)  Ah yes, it's the mob effect  at fault.  I see.  Individual greed doesn't have a thing to do with it.  It doesn't seem to cross their minds that they could, you know, just refuse or give back the money.  Get this guy:

"It's going to blow up," said a senior Financial Products manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company. "I have a horrible, horrible, horrible feeling that this is going to end badly." (Politico)

See...see what you don't understand is that AIG and the executives didn't have a choice.  They had to pay out and accept these bonuses or dire consequences would ensue.  "AIG would face costly lawsuits and be subject to penalties from states and foreign governments. Administration officials said over the weekend that they agreed with that assessment," WaPo solemnly avers.

But if it would help these frightened execs, I can tell them exactly what would stop the rising tide of public outrage: give it back to the company, every taxpayer-funded penny of it, as Deb suggested here, along with a written disclaimer of any right to sue AIG or anyone else.  I'm sure someone in the Treasury could work it out so that they don't have to pay tax on what they didn't keep.  As for state and foreign penalties, those could surely be negotiated. 

Of course, all this should have been anticipated and dealt with back in the days when Henry Paulson was telling us that only a massive and immediate transfusion of taxpayer blood could save the financial industry from death. 

So here's the outcome:   zombie institutions lurching round the countryside howling for more blood so they can go on staying alive.  What are they going to do when we're all tapped out?

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is caught between the zombies and the cliff's edge.  Well, he did want the job.  It's a bit late in the day for him to complain that he didn't know the deal included zombies.

Memeorandum has more.

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