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[Tim]

AIG cancels planned events amid rebukes for hosting $440,000 function

American International Group Inc. said Thursday that it would cancel most of its planned events after lawmakers castigated the insurer for hosting a $440,000 function at a resort while benefiting from an $85-billion government bailout.

The cancellations include an event that was scheduled for next week at the Ritz-Carlton in Northern California's Half Moon Bay. The gathering that drew the rebukes was held last month at the St. Regis Resort in Dana Point. About 100 independent insurance agents who sell coverage for New York-based AIG attended, spending $23,000 on spa services, among other things.

Read more here -

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-aig1...0,2353290.story

Anyone wonder why we're in the crapper? These clowns almost go under, taxpayers who are losing jobs and homes bail them out - and they're off to a laa-dee-dah spa fxxxing resort??? Obviously nearly going out of business BY THEIR OWN HAND did nothing to change their way of thinking. Jerks. A couple of nice quotes from the article -

"This kind of behavior is an insult to taxpayers," the Montana Democrat wrote in a letter to Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. Baucus asked for a response by Oct. 23.

"I cannot fathom how in the same day -- the very same day -- that AIG asked the government for another $37.8-billion loan, the company would even consider moving forward with plans to host another large conference at another luxury resort," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat.

THEN, skipping another chance to learn they're idiots, they want to ADVERTISE EXPENSIVELY about their screw up. A nice repsonse -


"To spend the taxpayer's money on an expensive ad campaign to apologize for how you used taxpayer money leaves you open to further attacks," Sard wrote in an e-mail Wednesday to Ashooh.

It just stuns me to think how stupid people who are supposed to be smart have been.

[Southsider2k12]

And back to the original post... I came across this today.

http://www.businessandmedia.org/commentary...aspxPoliticians,

Journalists Have Eyes On The Wrong Ball
Portrayal of AIG conference as 'wine, women and song' shows ignorance of business.

By Dan Kennedy
Business & Media Institute
11/19/2008 1:54:33 PM

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The news media have, for two weeks, endlessly expressed outrage at AIG’s spending several hundred thousand dollars on a sales conference held at a Phoenix resort – after getting federal bailout billions. The impression conveyed has been that AIG executives took money from us taxpayers and immediately turned around and blew it on wine, women and song, hanging out at a hoity-toity resort, wallowing in caviar on our dime. As usual, the reporting is grossly inaccurate.

And the posturing politicians demanding tighter government watchdogging and control over how the bailout dollars invested in AIG and countless other companies is spent is outrage misdirected.

The facts about these big AIG meetings are that sponsors, predominately financial product providers and other vendors, subsidize large portions of the budgets for these meetings. They directly underwrite or reimburse for expenses as well as rebate after the fact based on sales made to and through AIG. Attendees also pay to attend.

The $300,000 cost of the event splashed all over the TV screen in reporting on this is likely the budget but not the actual, net cost incurred by AIG. Further, these types of events are part and parcel of fueling sales in advance and rewarding salespeople for results.

Those reporting only the sensationalist aspect of all this – the cost, the fact that they occur at fancy locations – are either ignorant of or, more likely, deliberately omitting the other facts. That’s either to protect the tabloid value of the story, or due to another agenda.

The politicians who propose micro-managing these companies’ use of funds are nothing but blowhards. They know full well such oversight is impossible. Once funds are lent or invested, they merge and commingle with all other funds and no one can trace a dollar spent on a spa treatment for a top producing sales agent’s spouse back to its origin.

Further, the politicians’ fake outrage would be better replaced with real rage directed at themselves for complete and utter failure to oversee and regulate the one thing that really matters: Is a company like AIG maintaining the necessary financial reserves to support the insurance it is selling?

This incidental example gets to the core problem with almost all politicians’ meddling with business, and all media’s reporting on it. They are pontificating about things they do not understand, opining about things they are ignorant of.

It’s fair to expect politicians like Gov. Sarah Palin ought to know geography, although it turns out those rumors of her ignorance were made up. Politicians also need to learn how business works or employ advisers who know before investing billions of our dollars in them, and journalists ought to pass a business basics course before reporting on these matters.

In short, our present economic trauma has much to do with our electing ignorant, unqualified dunderheads to Congress, and employing equally ignorant journalists to serve as the public watchdogs over them. We need smarter, more knowledgeable people in these positions.

If we had citizen government instead of entrenched royalty, Congress would be populated by business owners, salespeople, shopkeepers, financial professionals and others who, back home, hold real world jobs, run real world businesses, meet real world payrolls, and have some firsthand practical knowledge. Instead we are the victims of career politicians completely distanced and divorced from the world you and I live in, and the businesses they attempt to regulate.

Dan Kennedy is a serial entrepreneur, adviser to business owners, sought-after speaker and author of 13 books. More information about Dan can be found at www.NoBSBooks.com, and a free collection of his business resources including newsletters and webinars at www.DanKennedy.com.

[Dave]

And back to the original post... I came across this today.

http://www.businessandmedia.org/commentary...aspxPoliticians,

You know, after reading that article, it seems like he does a certain amount of speculation ("The $300,000 cost of the event splashed all over the TV screen in reporting on this is likely the budget but not the actual, net cost incurred by AIG" is speculation in my book.)

And I'm sorry, if he can't see the PR nightmare that that outing was, he's blind. That whole thing feels too much like lending your cousin money to pay his rent because he says he's running short, and then seeing his car parked at the riverboat the next day. Who wouldn't be ticked off?

It's sounding the same way with the Wall Street $700 billion bailout -- money given to the banks to "free up liquidity" is being used to pay executive bonuses, pay stock dividends, and to pay for mergers and acquisitions. Is the liquidity crisis past so those banks can go back to doing this stuff, or are they just doing business as usual, just with taxpayer dollars?

I've gotten to the point where I'm going to refuse to see a stock market crisis until I see multiple brokers jumping out of their windows. Nothing says "panic" short of brokers splattered on the sidewalks.

This post has been edited by Dave: Nov 20 2008, 02:44 PM