Barney Frank: "We own this company"

CNN) -- As the tide of outrage over AIG bonuses continued unabated Wednesday, a congressional committee became the epicenter of the issue as Edward Liddy, CEO and chairman of the troubled insurer, prepared to answer questions about executive bonuses.

On Wednesday's "American Morning," Rep. Barney Frank, who chairs the House Finance Committee, shared what was legally and legislatively within the government's power on recovering the AIG bonuses and reforming the whole financial incentive system.

Kiran Chetry, CNN anchor: When he appears before your committee today, what type of assurances are you guys seeking from Mr. Liddy with regard to these bonuses?

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts: Well, I don't have a lot of confidence in Mr. Liddy's view at this point. When he said that first he couldn't get the money back because they had contractual rights but also that he was worried about not retaining them, it left me unconvinced he's really going to be trying.

The notion that we want to retain these people, that we want to pay the people who messed it up in the first place so they don't leave, is just backward to me. I think we would probably be better off if they did leave.

We are going to ask him to fully be cooperative in our effort, but I think the federal government has to take the lead on the lawsuits. We own this company in effect, and we're not asking that these bonuses be rescinded because we have lent money to the company.

I'd love to see the government rip AIG a new one.

AIG Executive Faces Grilling on Capitol Hill

AIG chief Edward Liddy will testify on Capitol Hill later this morning about almost $200 million in bonuses at the financial giant.

He will defend the payments that have caused outrage among politicians and taxpayers.

The bonuses went out in an effort to keep employees from fleeing the troubled financial products department. Liddy though still admitted the bonuses are probably distasteful in talks with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Geithner said he will deduct the cost of the bonuses from the pending $30 billion cash infusion to the insurance giant, bringing the total amount of taxpayer money to AIG to around $200 billion.

Geithner's statement was an attempt to calm the general publics outrage over the bonuses. AIG has beefed up security outside its suburban Connecticut office, amid reports of death threats and irate phone calls to employees, some of whom have submitted resignations.

Meanwhile, NYU finance professor Roy Smith said AIG can't afford to lose the top talent that received those payments.

"To risk having many of those people walk out of you, and have to replace them with people who are postal workers, is probably a foolish thing to do."

Liddy himself did not get a bonus. They range from $1,000 to $6.5 million.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reported that 73 AIG employees nabbed $1 million or more in bonuses, all of them in the derivatives unit that brought the company down.

Something is deeply wrong with this outcome, Cuomo wrote to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Frank now urges the Obama administration to fight the bonuses, more of which may be owed to AIG executives under various contracts.

Some Congressmen are threatening to slap such bonuses with a 60-100% tax.

President Barack Obama said Monday that the bonuses were an outrage, and has ordered Geithner to take all legal measures to block them.

Other members of Congress have taken shots at the AIG executives. Representative Sam Johnson (R-TX) said they should be "turned over to the marines," and Charles Grassley (R-IA) is raising eyebrows too.

"They need to either do one of two things...resign or go commit suicide."

Grassley also said the corporation is acting irresponsibly by giving bonuses made of taxpayer money in a Fox News interview yesterday.

And he's not the only one. Other lawmakers are working on a bill to tax those bonuses at one hundred percent. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said if the executives don't give the bonuses back, then they'll take them by force.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT), chair of the Senate Banking Committee is also calling for the repeal of the bonuses.

Connecticut lawmakers said yesterday they hope to change a state law thats being partially blamed by AIG as a reason for the bonuses.

The Wage Act allows employees to sue for twice the full amount of contractually owed wages in this case $330 million as well as attorneys fees if the employer refuses to pay.

One administrative worker said Financial Products has a reputation for paying out huge bonuses.

In her first year after being transferred there from another branch, the woman's annual bonus jumped from $12,000 to $40,000.

Kremlin to Push Global Currency at G-20

The Kremlin will pitch a new currency at an upcoming meeting of the G-20. The Kremlin published its priorities Monday for the meeting, calling for a supranational reserve currency to be issued by international institutions. This is part of a reform of the global financial system.

The International Monetary Fund should investigate the possible creation of a new reserve currency, widening the list of reserve currencies, or using its already existing Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, as a superreserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community, the Kremlin said in a statement on its web site.

The IMF created SDRs in 1969 to supplement the existing official reserves of member countries.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have repeatedly called for the ruble, rather than the dollar, to be used as the regional reserve currency, although the idea has received little support outside Russia. The Kremlin has repeatedly criticized the dollars status as the dominant global reserve currency, and has lowered its dollar holdings in the last few years.

Analysts said the Kremlins proposal will not elicit excitement at the meeting.

This is all in the realm of fantasy, said Sergei Perminov, chief strategist at Rye, Man and Gore. There was a situation that resembled what they are talking about. It was called the gold standard, and it ended very badly.

Alternatives to the dollar are still hard to find, he said.

Recently, there have been other calls for a common currency. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed a global currency at an economic conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.

New Yorkers celebrate St. Patty's Day

From NYTimes.com...

Tens of thousands of marchers proceeded up Fifth Avenue on Tuesday for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, the festive mood of the procession — believed to be the 248th — tempered by the deteriorating economy in both the United States and Ireland.

New York City ranks behind Boston, Philadelphia, Tampa, Cleveland, Baltimore, Chicago and other cities in the proportion of residents who list Irish as their primary ancestral group, but the St. Patrick’s Day parade is nonetheless a political rite of passage for politicians and notables.

Even as the parade began at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street at 11 a.m., a group of lesbian and gay Irish organizations demonstrated 13 blocks away, at 57th Street, criticizing the organizers for their policy barring gay groups (though not individuals) from marching.

The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who is the city’s most prominent openly gay official, has stayed away from the parade since being told she could not wear even a pin, button or sash indicating gay pride. She plans to take part in a large St. Patrick’s Day reception in Washington on Tuesday evening, at the invitation of President Obama.

For many spectators, the attention was on the sacrifice of service members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My plan for today is, of course, to get drunk, go to South Boston carrying a boom box playing "I'm Shipping Up to Boston", walk into a bar and punch the first guy I see.

Cuomo reveals details on AIG bonuses

From NYTimes.com...

Seventy-three employees were paid more than $1 million in the newly minted bonuses at the insurance giant, American International Group, according to the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo.

THAT's where your tax money is going.

Obama outraged over AIG bonuses

Work on the angry face, Barry.
Try calling Obama a corporate shill and socialist NOW!

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday that American International Group Inc's payment of $165 million in bonuses is an "outrage" and ordered the treasury secretary to take all legal measures to block them.

FINALLY! Finally the government stops taking...spit...from A.I.G.

El Camino wins CA quiz relay

From the Los Angeles Times...

Reporting from Sacramento — You could have cut the tension with some really sharp repartee, this being a room full of very smart people.

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the theater?" tried emcee Amy Lewis after some technical glitches threatened to gum up the finale of the state Academic Decathlon on Sunday night.

That didn't entirely soothe the more than 500 competitors from 60 California high schools, or their coaches and parents, who half-filled the cavernous Sacramento Memorial Auditorium for the last event in a grueling two-day match to select the brainiest team of high schoolers in the state.

"Amateur hour," groused Marshall High coach Larry Welch.

But after discarding a rogue PowerPoint presentation that was displaying the wrong answers to quiz questions, the competition went on. ("We do truly apologize," state director Ken Scarberry said later.)

The unofficial winner of Sunday night's Super Quiz Relay, the only portion of the Decathlon waged in public, was no surprise. Perennial champ El Camino of Woodland Hills scored 58 of a possible 60 points.

Congratulations, but come on, perennial champ? Nobody likes an overachiever.