Boards are real culprits in AIG mess
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/US/03/18/liddy.profile/art.liddy.afp.gi.jpg]
Nell Minow
Special to CNN
The stories about the outrageous $160 million bonus payments at AIG have all omitted the most important names.
They are the members of AIG's Board of Directors Compensation Committee.
These people should have been on the hot seat before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, alongside CEO Ed Liddy. Although there is a lot of blame to go around, ultimately the buck stops - or, I should say, the bucks should have stopped - with them.
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Filed under: 360° Radar • AIG • Bailout Turmoil |
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So the same people on the AIG compensation board are directors on other companies' compensation boards. No wonder everything is collapsing. People tend to do the same thing in similar situations even when it proves to not work – we have seen a lot of evidence of this in the past few months. There should be a limit to how many boards a person can sit on simultaneously – not only for this reason but also to keep down conflict of interest issues. This is totally outrageous that the same people from one company to the next helped drive our economy over a cliff with their high flying compensation plans for execs like themselves. The word "greed" doesn't even begin to cover it anymore.
With the US Govt owning 80 percent of AIG...why haven't we put new board members in place??
Shouldn't that be job one?
There not culprits there just idiots.
Actually, if we had not given any money to AIG then in theory AIG would not have had enough money to pay the bonuses with. Someone was asleep at the wheel when those bonuses slid past oversight.
The boards are not the culprits. The corrupt Socialist president Barack Hussein Obama's administration is the problem. They tried to hide or cover up their involvement in adding the approval of bonuses due before Feb 22 09. This is the change the American people will ge getting in the next 4 years.