S: Is for Silent Terribly Silent

In a strange way I switched yesterday and todays column. By turning off our lights there is hope. Our government is going after AIG and the other companies that have been bailed out after committing crimes against humanity. Sounds hopeful, right? Wrong. Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, knew about AIG paying $165 million in bonuses to hundreds of employees and he knew at least by March 3rd. He stated that the financial industry had gotten “out of whack” in recent years, and pledged to crack down on exorbitant pay at companies like A.I.G. that were being bailed out with billons of taxpayer dollars. He stated that at the House Ways and Means Committee on March 3 — one week before Mr. Geithner claims he first learned that the failed insurance company was about to pay a round of bonuses that have since caused a political uproar. Mr. Geitner your time frame is off. Yet, he called Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G., and “insisted that they be renegotiated and restructured,” when he found out the American people had learned about this little fopa. It is possible that Geitner, which means the President knew even sooner. Career staff officials at the Treasury, Fed and Federal Reserve Bank of New York exchanged e-mail messages about the A.I.G. bonus program as early as late February. A.I.G. itself revealed the bonus plan in regulatory filings last September. In November, when the bailout were restructured, Treasury and Fed officials negotiated the terms under which retention payments could be made. And in December, Democratic lawmakers sought a hearing about the payments. A.I.G., has received more than $170 billion in capital infusions, loans and credit lines from the federal government since last September, and is about to get $30 billion more. A.I.G. executives insist that they informed the New York Fed and that they in turn were informing the Treasury. If A.I.G.’s plan to pay out $165 million in bonuses came as a surprise to Mr. Geithner, it did not come as a surprise to the Treasury, the Federal Reserve in Washington or the New York Fed. Someone is being silent and that someone is the American people. We have allowed ourselves to be taken advantage of time and time again and this time is no exception. Why are we not getting mad? Why are these CEO's, Madoff and Timothy F. Geithner not being brought up on crimes against humanity? These are crimes and that is a F.A.C.T.