Sunday, March 29, 2009

Reading Assignment: "Dear A.I.G. Guy, You Suck!"

An AIG exec submits his resignation/woe-is-me letter as an Op-Ed in the New York Times—"Dear A.I.G., I Quit!"

But that's not the assignment. Matt Taibbi's response is...
DeSantis has a few major points. They include: 1) I had nothing to do with my boss Joe Cassano's toxic credit default swaps portfolio, and only a handful of people in our unit did; 2) I didn't even know anything about them; 3) I could have left AIG for a better job several times last year; 4) but I didn't, staying out of a sense of duty to my poor, beleaguered firm, only to find out in the end that; 5) I would be betrayed by AIG senior management, who promised we would be rewarded for staying, but then went back on their word when they folded in highly cowardly fashion in the face of an angry and stupid populist mob.

I have a few responses to those points. They are 1) Bullshit; 2) bullshit; 3) bullshit, plus of course; 4) bullshit. Lastly, there is 5) Boo-Fucking-Hoo. You dog.

AIGFP only had 377 employees. Those 400-odd folks received almost $3.5 billion in compensation in the last seven years, a very large part of that money coming from the sale of credit default protection. Doing the math, that averages out to over $9 million of compensation per person.

[...] Are we supposed to believe that Jake DeSantis knew nothing about Joe Cassano's CDS deals? If your boss and the top guys in your firm were all making a killing selling anything at all -- whether it was rubber kayaks, generic Levitra or credit default swaps -- you really wouldn't bother to find out what that thing they were selling was?

[...] let's just say, Jake, that you're telling the truth, that you don't know anything about this toxic portfolio. If that's the case, then why the fuck does anyone need to retain you at an exorbitant salary to help unwind that very portfolio? If these transactions aren't and never were your expertise, then where the hell is your value here?

I'll add this: Jake DeSantis was already paid in the neighborhood of ten mil (at least!) the last few years. So, he's either still pretty fucking wealthy and can shut the fuck up, or, he's broke—in which case he's a financial moron and shouldn't be anywhere near anyone elses money.

As a commenter at Taibbi's post said, "This guy needs to be punched in the fucking soul."

7 comments:

steves said...

Great response, Matt. Stuff like this is making me change my opinion of you.

Mr Furious said...

LOL! Since my first name is actually Matt, at first I read this like "What? I thought steves liked me?!?"

Yeah, there were a few Taibbi-haters last time. GEt past the guy's somewhat off-putting style, and there's some good shit in there.

steves said...

I do like you, but I didn't know your name.

I still disagree with him on some issues, but he is spot on this time and I appreciate his willingness to do what most of the MSM won't.

Afrit007 said...

Excellent. When I read the article in NYT the first time I thought I felt a twinge of sympathy, but then realized it was gas.

Rickey said...

Sad thing is, when the govt takeover of AIG is complete, they'll change the name to something innocuous, shuffle around a few hacks, and the public at large will be none the wiser to one of the greatest heists in corporate history.

The grift continues...

DED said...

DeSantis lives in Redding, the next town over from me. He's doing just fine. Everyone in that town is doing just fine.

Levitra Kaufen said...

Wow.! Period then exclamation mark because its quite the revolution! Its about time that companies endure a bit of a twist in their representation, its not often we get to see something like this but hey it'll be worth the production! A company's image sometimes needs a different approach or way of handling situations. Whether people think it to be unique or not, Im my own individual and nothing will get in the way of my vision!