Originally posted by: Michael
BoberFett - actually, salary + bonus (or commission or whatever else) is pretty common across all job. Turnover was high, failure to meet targets = loss of job and no bonus and the bonuses tend to be set on targets the company set.
Since these were, for the msot part, retention "bonuses" and not perfornce bonuses, I have a hard time joining in with the lynch mobs.
Michael
As the letter pointed out, I think the main problem is the lack of backing/explaination from AIG that's not fair to this exec and people in his division.
Not many people know what "retention" bonuses are, and depending on the way it's structureed, it can mean on way or the other. If Liddy discloused publically that these guys have been paid $1 (or whatever minimal salary) for the year, and the retention bonues is a contracted bouns for staying on the job for 12 month to completed certain task, and those task has been completed, I think the public outcry would have been much less. And it would have been clear that some politicians/press are making something out of nothing.
General public don't know how Wall St. work, they see "bonus" the first reaction is reward for job well done. They don't know specifically how hard those people worked or how much they contributed to make AIG mess more managable, the only info general public have is AIG is a mess and the first reaction is all associated with AIG is responsible for the mess.
So I wouldn't call general public mobs, it's just the lack of info, and lack of dissemination of info by those responsible. And the lack of backbone by those who should have stood out and explain like the letter pointed out.