Stroll With Me Down Shakedown Street

I find this disturbing:

The New York State attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, said on Monday that he had persuaded nine of the top 10 bonus recipients at the American International Group to give the money back, as the Senate retreated on plans to tax such bonuses.

Mr. Cuomo said he was working his way down a list of A.I.G. employees, ranked by the size of their bonuses, and had already won commitments to pay back $50 million out of the total $165 million awarded this month. But in a reversal of the stand he took last week, he said he did not intend to release any names.

“If the person returns the money, I don’t think there’s a public interest in releasing the names,” Mr. Cuomo said in a conference call with reporters.

I would want to know  lot more about the nature of his conversations with these people.  Is he threatening to out them? Tie them up in endless investigations?  Does he have a serious criminal case to be made against each employee there, and if so, why does returning the bonus make the case go away?

Oh, well - if this were happening under the Bush Justice Department the howls from the civil liberties types would be deafening.

REAX:  The Gawker is not thrilled with what is being done in our name:

AIG-ers Return Bonuses To Man Who Has Their Addresses

After subpoenaing the names and addresses of AIG bonus recipients, New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo convinced many said recipients to return the cash. Well, many of those who live near the angry mobs.

The AIG executives in Britain are basically ignoring Cuomo's populist hardball, given the relative lack of outrage in their country.

But Cuomo announced that nine of the top 10 bonus recipients will return the money! And 15 of the top 20 in the financial products division! Victory!

See? Mob rule Democracy works.

Noam Scheiber of TNR is not sure what is going on:

Cuomo Gets Results?

The Times says 15 of the 20 largest bonus recipients at AIG Financial Products will be returning the money, for a total of about $30 million. The story implies that Andrew Cuomo deserves the credit (or, at least, it allows him to claim it). But is that really true? What if the bonus recipients were responding to pleas by AIG CEO Ed Liddy? Or to the House bonus-tax measure? Or to various forms of shaming by their friends and neighbors? Or to general public outrage?

This development strikes me as way, way overdetermined.

If this were the Bush DoJ or an aggressive state AG threatening to out and investigate the nurses, technicians and doctors at an abortion clinic I bet Mr. Scheiber would surely know whom to credit.  Sorry, blame, in that case.

Alex Koppelman of Salon identifies only one problem - not enough money is coming back:

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- who, given the possibility that he'll run for governor in 2010, has to be loving all this -- announced Monday that AIG executives have agreed to return, in total, about $30 million of the bonus money the company recently paid out.

Considering this means that, for now, less than one-fifth of the $165 million in bonus money is coming back, it's unlikely this number will do much to stem the anger directed at AIG. One other announcement Cuomo made might help, though -- nine of the top 10 recipients agreed to return their bonuses, as did 15 of the top 20 recipients from the company's financial products division, which is at the heart of the firm's woes.

Comments

[crosspatch]

This is sort of what bothers me about the whole treasury toxic debt deal. What happens when the private investors start making money? Does Congress suddenly change the rules in mid-stream? They get the private sector to participate with visions of fulcrums dancing in their heads ... and the moment they start making real money change the pivot point on them.

It might be hard to get private players into the market after this latest AIG bait and switch.

[AL]

Oh, great. Now in addition to activist judges we have activist attorneys.

Read “The Godfather” for a technique how to make offer one could not refuse.

[pagar]

Meanwhile, police are still attempting to prevent (or figure out who is conducting) robbery at gunpoint.

[Captain Hate]

If I had Spitzer and Cuomo in a room with only one bullet, I'd have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to maximize the utility of my action.

[verner]

Article in Bloomberg about the commie thugs at Connecticut Working Families (aka Axelrod's angel's) who harassed AIG execs at home.

LUN

[Daddy]

Captain Hate,

The Russians up here in the 1770's gruesomely lined the Aleuts up head to head, and let 1 bullet do the work of 6. Just saying...

[TCO]

Aren't you happy you went for those bush/McCain bailouts, JOM, you RINO maggot.

[Captain Hate]

For Craig Stallings of Hartford, the state capital, that was one of the reasons why he took his three sons, ages 4, 6 and 11, on the bus. The trip was their first visit to Fairfield, parts of which are known as “the Gold Coast” because of large houses and views of Long Island Sound. Poling’s house has three chimneys and at least 18 windows facing the front yard. To the rear of Haas’s house is the Sound and the Fairfield Country Club.

“It’s important for my kids to see what hard work and an education will get you,” said Stallings, a 36-year-old small- business tax preparer.

I'm confused; why is it "important" for a 4 year-old to be taken on a "protest" media event to complain about compensation given to people who ostensibly worked hard and were well educated. Maybe Stallings wants his kids to be as obtuse as he is.

[billb]

Wasn't Cuomo the culprit who started all of this in the '90's as HUD secretery? He threatened the banks that wouldn't lend money to bad risk home buyers. The banks were accused of "red lining" which in fact made sound buisness sense. Cuomo gets to be the hero along with his boss Bill Clinton.
With a dishonest press,nothing will be solved!

[steve sturm]

What I find disturbing:

(1) either Cuomo (and the others) knows and doesn't care that the employees getting these bonuses are NOT the same people who caused the problems (thus, no 'rewarding failure'), or

(2) he doesn't know and doesn't care to spend the time actually determining the facts (one would think an AG would want to first determine the facts, but, unfortunately, we don't see that happening too often), which, along with,

(3) Cuomo's willingness and eagerness - despite having NO signficant business experience of any kind, successful or not - to substitute his judgment for that of Liddy - the guy who was appointed for the sole purpose of minimizing taxpayer losses at AIG - and override Liddy's decision that paying these bonuses was in the best interests of AIG and thus the American taxpayer, and all for the purpose of

(4) twisting a situation into one in which Cuomo personally benefits, no matter the consequences to AIG and thus the taxpayers to which he supposedly reports, and

(5) Cuomo's ability to pull this off is only made possible by the ignorance and bitterness of the public who also suffer from an inability and/or unwillingness to figure out that actions such as this only hurt us in the long run, and

(6) none of this would have happened had the previous administration not been so willing to ignore pretty much everything but the troop levels in Iraq and trying to pass immigration amnesty (imagine if Bush had spent his political capital on pushing through reforms of Fannie and Freddie, tightening up loose lending and cracking down on mortgage fraud instead of trying to privatize Social Security?), which

(7) helped leave America so disillusioned with the GOP that they turned to Obama and gave Pelosi and Reid even-larger majorities.

[sbw]

Cuomo, the new Spitzer.

[qrstuv]

This is thuggery, plain and simple.

[Jane]

Cuomo, the new Spitzer.

You beat me to it.

Someone needs to review the job requirements for NY AG. The man should be arrested for extortion - an terminal stupidity.

[bad]

I love that we've hounded AIG into changing their name. That change will probably cost more to implement than the damn bonuses cost.

[hit and run]

sbw:
Cuomo, the new Spitzer.

Who will be the new Ashley Dupre?

[steve sturm]

Even without the bonuses, it was probably a good idea for AIG to come up with a new name as a way of shedding its past.

[bad]

Tapper has a thread requesting questions to ask Obama at his presser tonight.

JOM has great ideas.

Give 'em to Jake.

LUN

[Pofarmer]

What. Did. Ya'll. Expect?

[verner]

Here's a little bit on Connecticut Working Families Party that will not come as ANY surprise to you seasoned veterans!

Address shared by ACORN

30 Arbor St. suite 210
Hartford, Ct. 06106

Also, same address home to around half a dozen "Advocacy" groups that mainly suck off the tax payer's tit.

Another socialist rat nest natch. And how much you want to bet this was co-ordinated right from the WH? We know they're Obama's sheeps!

I think this is scary stuff. What's next! Write something Obama doesn't like, and screaming old radicals show up at your door?

They're already mobilizing to push through the agenda.

[RichatUF]

verner-

I saw that, they also used to be part of the New Party umbrella. Obama is getting his shocktroops out there collecting names and loyalty pledges through his "Organizing for America" effort. Curiously the media doesn't seem bothered by that.

[clarice]

Sweetness & Light's Steve Gilbert reminds us of Cuomo's role in the mortgage meltdown in the first place

"As we noted back in September 2008 <http://tinyurl.com/ccvfuz> , even the
ultra-left Village Voice has pointed how Mr. Cuomo was very largely
responsible for the whole mortgage meltdown in the first place.

For Mr. Cuomo forced lenders to give home loans to people who simply could
not (or would not) ever pay them back.

From (of all places) the Village <http://tinyurl.com/6aaotn> Voice:

<http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3281/2879832808_457403b646_o.jpg>

Andrew Cuomo and Fannie and Freddie

How the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history gave
birth to the mortgage crisis

By Wayne Barrett
August 05, 2008

There are as many starting points for the mortgage meltdown as there are
fears about how far it has yet to go, but one decisive point of departure is
the final years of the Clinton administration, when a kid from Queens
without any real banking or real-estate experience was the only man in
Washington with the power to regulate the giants of home finance, the
Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) and the Federal Home Loan
Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), better known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Andrew Cuomo, the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in
history, made a series of decisions between 1997 and 2001 that gave birth to
the country's current crisis. He took actions that-in combination with many
other factors-helped plunge Fannie and Freddie into the subprime markets
without putting in place the means to monitor their increasingly risky
investments. He turned the Federal Housing Administration mortgage program
into a sweetheart lender with sky-high loan ceilings and no money down, and
he legalized what a federal judge has branded "kickbacks" to brokers that
have fueled the sale of overpriced and unsupportable loans. Three to four
million families are now facing foreclosure, and Cuomo is one of the reasons
why...

In 2000, Cuomo required a quantum leap in the number of affordable,
low-to-moderate-income loans that the two mortgage banks-known collectively
as Government Sponsored Enterprises-would have to buy...

Cuomo's predecessor, Henry Cisneros, did that for the first time in December
1995, taking a cautious approach and moving the GSEs toward a requirement
that 42 percent of their mortgages serve low- and moderate-income families.
Cuomo raised that number to 50 percent and dramatically hiked GSE mandates
to buy mortgages in underserved neighborhoods and for the "very-low-income."
...

While many saw this demand for increasingly "flexible" loan terms and
standards as a positive step for low-income and minority families, others
warned that they could have potentially dangerous consequences. Franklin
Raines, the Fannie chairman and first black CEO of a Fortune 500 company,
warned that Cuomo's rules were moving Fannie into risky territory: "We have
not been a major presence in the subprime market," he said, "but you can bet
that under these goals, we will be." ...

But raising the affordable-housing goals was only half the Cuomo story.

The HUD secretary is also required to produce voluminous rules that govern
how the GSEs meet those goals, and the 187-page rules Cuomo issued opened
the door to abuse.

The rules explicitly rejected the idea of imposing any new reporting
requirements on the GSEs. In other words, HUD wanted Fannie and Freddie to
buy risky loans, but the department didn't want to hear just how risky they
were...

As we have noted before, this very lengthy Village Voice article contains
much more damming information about Mr. Cuomo's machinations.

But in basic terms it is quite safe to say that if it was for the actions of
Mr. Cuomo and his comrades, AIG wouldn't be in the terrible position it is
in today. A detail that our one party media (apart from the Village Voice)
has somehow failed to mention.

But Mr. Cuomo's morality play is not unlike the irony of having an ACORN
front group protesting at the offices of the AIG and even harassing its
employees where they live.

Or the sheer mockery of Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd and Maxine Waters
upbraiding banking CEOs in their Congressional show trials.

How long any nation can survive when such grotesque perversions of justice
become every day events?"

[Caro]

I know that building at 30 Arbor St. It was popular with designers and photographers. I have been there many times. It isn't far from the capitol building so I can see why the activists have taken over.

[Fresh Air]

...screaming old radicals show up at your door?

I don't think my doorman would let them in. They can try, though. It would make for some good entertainment.

Seriously, this is why these bastards are going to be run out of Washington in 2010. No one will go the barricades over pork or socialized medicine. But conservatives will fight this stuff tooth and nail. All the enthusiasm is on our side. I really don't see a whole lot to change that. Of course, if we fail ennui could set in. But let's not think about that just yet.

[Caro]

Thanks for reminding us of that Village Voice article, Clarice. I hope it is quoted incessantly by his opponent for governor.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I saw that, they also used to be part of the New Party umbrella. Obama is getting his shocktroops out there collecting names and loyalty pledges through his "Organizing for America" effort. Curiously the media doesn't seem bothered by that.

Actually, even The Nation is reporting that enthusiasm is somehow lacking.

[verner]

"But conservatives will fight this stuff tooth and nail. All the enthusiasm is on our side. I really don't see a whole lot to change that. Of course, if we fail ennui could set in. But let's not think about that just yet."

I think you're right Fresh. The ACORN numbers are always inflated. As we've frequently pointed out, most of these groups are just shell orgs with the same tired ole folks showing up all the time, and the friendly media inflating their numbers.

Those tea parties, on the other hand, are truly "grass roots."

[bad]

Some lefties at Tapper have tried to push the meme that the tea parties are ugly and violent.

[verner]

From Charlie's link:

For a change of scenery we headed over to the nearby grocery store Fairway, where the three encountered considerably less enthusiasm. The customers were mostly Obama supporters, but few wanted to sign the budget pledge. Among the responses:

"Obama personally knows I support him. Trust me. I could call him right now."

"I voted for him, I gave him money, I'm a supporter. But I don't want to give out my email address."

"A this stage, I'm really disappointed with him. He loaded up the budget with earmarks and blamed it all on the Republicans!"

After thirty minutes, Erica had collected ten forms and Shanice only six. They were ready to head back. "I thought people would be more enthusiastic about Obama," Erica said. "They're suffering from Obama fatigue," Tremis responded. "The side effect is they don't want to hear about it anymore."

HAHAHA. He who lives by the mob shall die by the mob.

Note to Axelrod, your Brand is getting stale.

[Fresh Air]

Verner--

When I covered campus protests back in the eighties during college, it was the same couple dozen radicals at every event, regardless of the topic. ACORN has been given a lot of government money over the years, but its numbers really aren't very impressive. Next time Jesse and his crew show up in a bank lobby, instead of pledging more CRA funds, they should just hit the whole mob with a couple of fusillades of sticky foam.

[Jane]

That is precisely what happened to Deval Patrick with the same brand. His current approval rating is in the 20's.

[bad]

Politico reports the State Department is less transparent under Obama/Clinton than under Bush.

LUN

[hit and run]

Verner:
Note to Axelrod, your Brand is getting stale.

Nothing like a good ol' fashioned prime time press conference interrupting American Idol to fix that!

[MayBee]

Obama's people were ready to use a slew of pledges as proof of popular support for the President's budget.

Can we use the dearth of pledges as proof there's little popular support for the President's budget?

[hit and run]

MayBee:
Can we use the dearth of pledges as proof there's little popular support for the President's budget?

Grim Milestone!

[bad]

By the way, Maybee is offering great questions for Tapper to ask O at the presser tonight.

Check them out and ask your own.

LUN

[clarice]

Ask him if he thinks it's a hot idea to give a group like ACORN (sued successfully around the country for election registration fraud) a role in the upcoming census..

[JM Hanes]

Hey Jane & Thomas Collins --

I'm in Boston! Wasn't sure I was actually going to get here till the very last second, but I came up for a big PShop conference. I'm staying over in Cambridge; but the confab is at Hynes Convention Center (which I'll probably have to learn to spell so I can find it). I'm using my travel email, which is hanesjm over at gmail, so drop me a line if you're around. Don't know whether they'll have wireless internet for all the geeks, but I'll be checking in as time and circumstance allow.

Gorgeous day here!

[bad]

I submitted your question Clarice.

[MayBee]

Jane is doing her show right now, JMH. You should find a way to call in.

[Porchlight]

Jane, just curious, how long did it take Deval Patrick's approval ratings to slide significantly below 50%?

[cathyf]

I think this is scary stuff. What's next! Write something Obama doesn't like, and screaming old radicals show up at your door?

All they need are brown shirts to wear.

[Jane]

JMH -

I'm not in Boston, but if you are there all week I'll either find a way in or convince you to come out.

[Jane]

Porchlight,

I don't know exactly but his fall was quick - starting out with his $10,000 drapes and his state funded Cadillac Escalade.

Cathy,

I tried to argue your severance bonus issue on the radio today but didn't do it with your succinctness.

[clarice]

Thanks, bad.

[MayBee]

I notice there is a new idea being pushed today, that Geithner is really shy and he is uncomfortable speaking in public.

[Jane]

It's his crooked finger that gets me.

[MayBee]

The company who makes Botox's stocks are up today. I bet a lot of people invested after seeing Geithner's wrinkly forehead on tv this morning.

[bad]

ha Maybee, I noticed that too. Geithner looks haggard compared to a couple months ago.

Or he was on a heckuva bender last night...

[bad]

It's his crooked finger that gets me.

Weird hand gestures as well.

[cathyf]

I tried to argue your severance bonus issue on the radio today but didn't do it with your succinctness.

OMG -- I think that this might be the first time in 46 years that I have ever been accused of succinctness!

(Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration -- it won't be 46 years until Friday.)

[glasater]

Cathyf~

Wanting to beat the birthday fairy to the punch--I'd like to wish you a very Happy Birthday.

You give presents to JOM every time you comment:-)