AIG chief asks for bonuses back

The executives of AIG (American International Group) received bonuses that are way too high and this in the middle of the financial crisis. The chairman of AIG Edward Liddy called the bonuses paid to the executives “distasteful”, the total amount of the bonuses is $165 million. Those bonuses paid to the executives have received a lot of criticism in the U.S. because the greatest part is paid by the taxpayers. But also because AIG has taken $170 billion aid from the government.

Lawmakers are taking steps to recover a part of the bonuses and Edward Liddy also asked to the executives who received more than $100,000 in bonuses to pay at least the half of it back. Some of the executives has answered this question.

In The House of Representatives is voted on a legislation for recovering the AIG bonuses. The bill would apply a tax rate of 90% on bonus income of $250,000 that was paid to companies who received more than $5 billion in bail-out money.
But not only the chairman of AIG is disappointed also President Obama is angry about the bonuses and called them "inappropriate use of taxpayer money". He’s also discussing with his economic council to create new legislation that gives the government more authority over financial institutions like AIG.

I think that those bonuses that were paid to the executives of AIG are distasteful as the chairman of AIG said. This is really a slap in the face of many people in the U.S. because the country has so many troubles and than the people who caused those problems are rewarded. The tax on the bonuses that is voted in The House of Representatives is a good measure and instead of giving executives of big companies such high bonuses it should be better to give that money to the shareholders or reinvest the money in the company. The proposal of Obama is also good and that will help in the future.


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7950452.stm