I was watching MSNBC and CNBC this morning, listening to the folks on "Morning Joe" and on "Squawk Box" talking all about how greed is the primary cause of the latest market meltdown, and sitting through all sorts of commercials when it hit me: I haven't seen any of those cute, funny AIG ads lately.
You know the AIG ads I'm talking about, the ones narrated by Stockard Channing and featuring some cute kid, like this one with the "laughing baby":
Bet that kid (and his folks) are crying now. (Btw, if laughter can add eight years to your life, how many years does crying shorten it by?)
Or remember this cute AIG ad, featuring the adorably precocious child who gets up in the middle night and pads down the hall to his parents' room, telling them he is worried about his family's financial future?
Ah, the Irony, Guys. Bet that kid's having nightmares now!
I probably should not be making light of this situation. I own a bunch of AIG stock, which was worth $2.05 at yesterday's close, and I have family and friends who work at AIG (or did as of yesterday), who I know are not responsible for the current mess and are no doubt freaking out -- and wondering about their family's financial future. (For more about the AIG fiasco, and to see CNBC "Money Honey" Maria Bartiromo's September 16 one-on-one "interview," for lack of a better word, with former AIG CEO and chairman and crook Hank Greenberg, click here.)
But the AIG situation has me pissed, pissed about all the mismanagement and excessive risk taking and greed that we all now painfully realize has been going on, for YEARS, at not just AIG but all over Wall Street and even Main Street -- and what it's going to do to our tax bills. (Cause guess where the government is going to have to get at least some of that bailout money, folks? From US, the taxpayers.)
And while I do believe the market will (eventually) make a comeback (which is why I have not liquidated my increasingly meager portfolio and shoved what's left under our 15-year-old mattress), I don't see it happening any time soon.
In the meantime, I'm heading to Mohegan Sun, where life is truly a crap shoot -- and at least you have fun and get free drinks while losing money.
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7 comments:
I'm mad as hell too
Don't know wtf to do
Keep rolling along
I agree with you. I'm so mad I could spit. For years they have talked about the millions paid out in bonuses to the top executives. For what? For showing profits? While the liabilities on the balance sheet were ballooning? Why is it that I have to live beyond my means but Big Business doesn't? Instead of having the government bailing out these institutions (with OUR hard-earned money), we should work out a program where the companies have to pay the money back to the Treasury over time. Since when is it new that greed has gotten the better of these institutions? Like the classic film, "Network," I think American citizens should take a moment during a day -- say 12noon EST -- where we all stand up and shout in unison, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" Let's get our politicians concerned about their own job security instead of turning a blind eye to these excesses. And I want all bonuses received by top executives repaid to the company. Grrrrr!
What about the deregulation of the industry (Glass-Steagall repeal -- thanks, Phil Gramm!) and lax enforcement of any remaining regulations?
Greed is a constant, from before Jay Gould to beyond Hank Greenberg. It is the response to greed that is variable, and with it, in inverse proportion, the awareness of how far one can push one's greed and the ability to do so.
My sense is that the greed-only line is being pushed by conservatives who are well aware of its inability to explain the entire situation, but who have painted themselves into a corner. Suddenly embracing re-regulation, as McCain appears to be doing, virtually writes its own Obama campaign ad.
Two additional observations:
1)
A new tradition
Larissa rocks the haiku
Keep up the good work
2)
Was moderation
Underwritten by Lehman Bros.?
Glad to see it go
I don't mean to monopolize the comments, but here is an example of what I was talking about upstream.
Heck. Of. A. Job.
Great comments, all. Love the haiku, Larissa. I'm with you, Nina. Good article, Dave. Thanks for the link. I hope people read it.
I just took a 10-minute break from work to wolf down some lunch and got so depressed watching the financial and political news on MSNBC I lost what little appetite I had. Jon Corzine just said this was the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And now Morgan Stanley is probably going to merge with Wachovia.
Oh and for all you undecided voters out there, John McCain has always been a champion of financial DE-regulation.
I thought I was done banging my head and then sticking it into a toilet, but I was wrong.
On the lighter side:
I happen to know that your mattress is not 15 years old.
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