Why AIG Angst ?

I listened to a bit of the President's comments regarding the AIG bonuses while I was driving my daughter in to school this morning. I thought it was nice of him to time them so that I could listen.

He said that the intent to give bonuses indicated that financial controls were needed that involved them as well as banks. I've heard it said that AIG (and presumably others) have as much an impact on the financial system as do banks, yet they have much less regulatory oversight. (Pause while I contemplate how well the regulatory oversight on banks has worked. Presumably, he meant 'effective oversight'; he just had to cut it short to get all his words in before the commute ended). I mulled over whether, if things were better, we'd have even known of them. We've gotten used to hearing about, and being unable to do anything about, the massive -- massive seems a curiously weak and pallid term, here -- bonuses that the Wall Street companies like to give themselves. Lookin' sharp, today, Wally -- nice tie! Have a bonus... so it comes as not too much of a surprise that these folks, playing in the same sandpile, do, too. And though I greet with skepticism the idea that they need to give these bones to people in order to retain them -- in this market? And later, you really think that money now will keep them around if someone else shows up later, slows down, rolls down their window, dangles candy out the window? -- I don't think that that's the underlying reason why people are irritated by them, or why Obama is.

I'm a Democrat, and I like Democrat attitudes. I really do believe that Democrats made this country a safe place to live, a place where you can trust that the prescribed drugs won't have nasty side effects, a place where we have safe work environments. I know, not universally -- but that's what I think Democrats stand for. But I also think that we stand for not entirely trusting people with a lot of money. I know that there are wealthy Democrats, and I'm not sure how they resolve this in their minds; likely, they think well, we're not WEALTHY wealthy, just comfortable. I suspect that most Democrats think, at a visceral level, that there's a certain level of money thats 'right' for a job, and that the really best people in that job can get more -- but not tons more. So when they see people getting tons more, it irks them. It irritates their feeling of fair play. And, to be honest, it ticks them off that they can be the absolute best in the world at whatever it is they do, but no one's going to say 'Hey, Wally, nice tie....have a bonus'. Not even close.

So while I think it's wrong for AIG to grab money with one hand, while with the other sprinkling money around, begging people to stay who appear to have been instrumental in causing this financial meltdown, and ought to be excoriated, not rewarded -- I don't think that's why Obama's against it. I think it just offends his basic sense of what's right...and what's not.

And now he has a chance to do something about it.