The AIG bonus brouhaha has really had its time in the spotlights.
Yes, it’s annoying that significant bonuses have been paid at a company that has received a very large amount of taxpayer money just to stay afloat. And yes, it is annoying that a good portion of those bonuses were paid in the parts of the company that were most in trouble and creating those questionable financial instruments. And yes, AIG is not the only one.
Sure, $165 million is far more money that the vast majority of us will ever make in our lifetimes. But it is a very small amount compared to the $170 billion that went into AIG.
All the activity in Washington, all the easy outrage from the senator and congress personalities to score easy, quick points through the press and media, bill proposals to try to recoup that money, to regulate how and to whom bonuses can be paid, calling for Geithner’s resignation all is a waste of our time and a distraction.
None of that helps us improving the economy or shorten any duration of a recession or depression. Spending all this effort and time to get back some of those millions does not help. Not having a Treasury Secretary at this moment and force President Obama to find and nominate another does not help.
Let it go, water under the bridge. It happened, tough. Move on.
Instead I much like the collective in Washington DC to focus on the job at hand: improve the economy.