| When Stephen Colbert promised to lead an angry, pitchfork-wielding mob to A.I.G. headquarters last week, he was joking. The actual angry mob that stood outside A.I.G. headquarters yesterday chanting “shame on you” wasn’t. Nor are the literally bus-loads of protesters scheduled to visit A.I.G. executives’ homes in Connecticut this weekend. No wonder the company has issued a security memo warning employees to hide their company insignia and, at night, to “travel in pairs and always park in well-lit areas.” As large a role as A.I.G. played in the meltdown, do you think the company will get any credit if it helps spur the recovery? In this siege mentality, what is A.I.G.’s incentive to succeed? [%comments]
Personae Non Gratae
TAGS: financial crisis, incentives
and 
. You can also watch it on 
If you need private security outside of your home because of fear for your safety over your business dealings, what is the lesson to be learned? The incentive might be to try and regain their good name and a measure of respect in the market place; qualities which motivate more American workers everyday than the skewed values of Wall Street.
Class warfare is all fun and games until someone loses an AIG.
Remember: a couple of hundred SEIU-sponsored union employees protesting outside of an AIG office is newsworthy, but a couple of thousand Tea Party protesters complaining about the whole bailout mess? Hardly worth mentioning.
1) How might AIG help in the recovery? Can someone explain that to me? Are they going to…
Nope. I can’t think of how the might do it.
2) Somone breaks your window. How much credit do they get for replacing it? Not a heck of a lot, right?
I don’t mean that it is all AIG’s fault, but a great deal of it is. How much do they have to help to balance out the $170 billion? They want credit? They don’t need credit from us, because they’ve already gotten the cash!
3) What is their incentive to succeed? That’s an iteresting question, or rather there are some interesting questions behind it. Would some kind of incentive beyond than their pay and their job security make a difference?
Historically, we know that AIG was not really motivated by making sure the economy did well. They were motivated by short and medium term profits. Why should we think that they would now be motivated by greater good, public good or health of the economy issues, beyond their impact on their compensation and job security?
So, I guess that’s not such an interesting question as we already know the answer.
Why isn’t RICO an option? AIG, Lehman, Bear and Merrill were running a racket. Now the public is being held hostage. RICO has been expanded to cover all sorts of activities that don’t resemble episodes of the Soprano’s.
The AIG workers have every incentive to succeed. If it fails again and is not bailed out by government, it will go bankrupt and they will be out of work and probably out a lot of money. Keeping AIG alive gives them a livelihood.
Look out Manchester United players and fans. Wear your jersey’s inside out. It is not safe out there.
What’s AIG’s incentive? The beatings will continue until morale (and profit) improves!