Wages dropped last year by 1.6%, the biggest decline since 1990...

...but the number of federal workers making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s doesn’t include overtime pay and bonuses are counted…

Dear A.I.G., I Quit!

The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G.

Read the letter...

Like Bernie Madoff, I've got the government coming after my money. Unlike Madoff, I didn't do anything wrong.

Socialism at its finest!

Come October I'll have no incentive to work anymore.

The Bonus Tax Is Just Plain Stupid

Reading the tea leaves

One emerging theme is the absence of press coverage, especially at the national level. For some reason, reporters and editors believe it is not news when thousands of people, all around the country, gather to protest the government's bailouts, trillions in debt, etc. And yet, when a mere forty people turned out in Connecticut for an ACORN-sponsored bus tour of homes owned by AIG executives, there were more media people covering the event than there were people on the bus. So let's see: conservative and libertarian opposition to the government's economic initiatives--not news. Far left opposition to the government's economic initiatives, no matter how few participate--that's news. But of course, not a single person reading this will be surprised.

Read all of them.

Treasury knew about the bonuses in November 2008!

Not only that, but this: Obama violating law on TARP oversight?"

DOUBLE WHAMMY...PLUS A BLOW FOR TIMOTHY GEITHNER: ...everyone knew about these bonuses. Congress even knew enough about it to question Geithner on it, with remarkable accuracy on the total amount due to be paid out, on March 3rd — nine days before Geithner initially claimed to know about it.

CNN BREAKING: Dodd reverses position on AIG bonuses, admits guilt

You can run...but you can't hide (except for O-boy): Wonder what forced him to admit it? Wonder if he'll get death threats now just like the poor wives and children of AIG employees...

Dodd (D): If this doesn't piss you off then nothing will

As ABC News' Capitol Hill Correspondent Jonathan Karl reported, in February, the Senate unanimously approved an amendment restricting bonuses over $100,000 at any company receiving federal bailout funds, but during the closed-door House and Senate negotiations the provision was stripped out and replaced with a measure by Dodd exempting bonuses agreed to prior to the passage of the stimulus bill on February 11, 2009.

Read the whole thing!

Oh, those sneaky Dems!

Just got back from the doctor...I have pneumonia. But this stuff is too good not to blog about! (But feeling not so hot, I think I'll "Insta-Pundit" my way through everything until I'm feeling better.) So: short and sweet:

Watch 'em try to have their cake and eat it too! Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries to Undo Bonus Protections in the 'Dodd Amendment' Rules

The Real AIG Outrage

President Obama joined yesterday in the clamor of outrage at AIG for paying some $165 million in contractually obligated employee bonuses. He and the rest of the political class thus neatly deflected attention from the larger outrage, which is the five-month Beltway cover-up over who benefited most from the AIG bailout.

Taxpayers have already put up $173 billion, or more than a thousand times the amount of those bonuses, to fund the government's AIG "rescue." This federal takeover, never approved by AIG shareholders, uses the firm as a conduit to bail out other institutions. After months of government stonewalling, on Sunday night AIG officially acknowledged where most of the taxpayer funds have been going.

Since September 16, AIG has sent $120 billion in cash, collateral and other payouts to banks, municipal governments and other derivative counterparties around the world. This includes at least $20 billion to European banks. The list also includes American charity cases like Goldman Sachs, which received at least $13 billion. This comes after months of claims by Goldman that all of its AIG bets were adequately hedged and that it needed no "bailout." Why take $13 billion then? This needless cover-up is one reason Americans are getting angrier as they wonder if Washington is lying to them about these bailouts.

You will understand all if you take the time to read this!