A telling post put up by Phineas at Sister Toldjah:
I mean, he was the picture of righteous indignation:
President Obama said Monday he will attempt to block bonuses to executives at ailing insurance giant AIG, payments he described as an “outrage.”
“This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed,” Obama told politicians and reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where he and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner were unveiling a package to aid the nation’s small businesses.
The president expressed dismay and anger over the bonuses to executives at AIG, which has received $173 billion in U.S. government bailouts over the past six months.
“Under these circumstances, it’s hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”Obama was referring to the bonuses paid to traders in AIG’s financial products division, the tiny group of people who crafted complicated deals that wound up shaking the world’s economic foundations.
But when it comes to the millions of dollars in compensation, regular and bonus, paid to executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) that were at the very center of the sub-prime mortgage-bundling that poisoned the financial system and took down companies such as AIG, Obama’s outrage is… strangely mute.
Phineas goes on to explain Obama’s silence and how it benefits his agenda.
Read it, pass it on.
UPDATE: I missed my colleague Rodney’s related post… if you did as well, check it out… it’s worthy.
