Wednesday 25th of December 2024
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sharing the pain .....

sharing the pain .....

Less than a week after the federal government offered an $85 billion bailout to insurance giant AIG, the company held a week-long retreat for its executives at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., running up a tab of $440,000, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said today at the opening of a House committee hearing about the near-failure of the insurance giant.

Showing a photograph of the resort, Waxman said the executives spent $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 for the spa.

"Less than a week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation," Waxman said. "We will ask whether any of this makes sense.

"The committee will ask the company's executives about their multimillion-dollar pay packages - some of which they continue to receive - as well as who bears responsibility for the company's high-risk investment portfolio, which led to its near collapse just weeks ago.

After Bailout, AIG Executives Head To Resort

another successful bailout .....

Wachovia Banks approved a US$8 million loan to the Republican Party.

Wasn't there a credit crunch? Aren't loans impossible to get?  

Oh, wait, the Bush administration is about to give taxpayer money to banks for their bad debt......

rodent watching .....

Thanks to the financial firestorm sweeping the globe, business in one niche of the Australian economy has never been better.  

Gold bullion dealers around the country are reporting spectacular sales as investors flock from traditional forms of investment such as stocks and bonds into the "safe haven" of gold and silver bullion.  

In one Sydney bullion house in the past week, a senior Westpac Bank manager walked in and bought nearly $300,000 of physical gold, equivalent at current prices to roughly 6.5kg of the metal.  

The manager said he had made the decision after he saw many of his staff (investment advisers) converting their cash and other savings into gold.

Scary stuff.  

For Some, Gloom Is Good As Gold

more pain .....

AIG and Bush administration devise plan to soak taxpayers for $150 billion, while AIG's execs party at Arizona luxury resort. It is time for Congressional Democrats to take the bailout bucks away from the Bush administration: 

·                     Even as the company was pleading the federal government for another $40 billion dollars in loans, AIG sent top executives to a secret gathering at a luxury resort in Phoenix last week.

·                     Reporters for abc15.com (KNXV) caught the AIG executives on hidden cameras poolside and leaving the spa at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort, despite apparent efforts by the company to disguise its involvement.

·                     "AIG made significant efforts to disguise the conference, making sure there were no AIG logos or signs anywhere on the property," KNXV reported.

·                     A hotel employee told KNXV reporter Josh Bernstein, "We can't even say the word [AIG]."

·                    A company spokesperson, Nick Ashooh, confirmed AIG instructed the hotel to make sure there were no AIG signs or mention of the company by staff. .. 

Pile this lunacy on top of the Bush administration's secret and ILLEGAL $140 billion tax windfall for banks, while Congress was busy debating the $700 billion bailout and it is fair to ask - when can impeachment proceedings begin? 

Another AIG Resort "Junket": Top Execs Caught On Tape