Matt Taibbi has no patience with the public whine session Jake DeSantis engaged in in the NYT.
DeSantis has a few major points. They include: 1) I had nothing to do with my boss Joe Cassano’s toxic credit default swaps portfolio, and only a handful of people in our unit did; 2) I didn’t even know anything about them; 3) I could have left AIG for a better job several times last year; 4) but I didn’t, staying out of a sense of duty to my poor, beleaguered firm, only to find out in the end that; 5) I would be betrayed by AIG senior management, who promised we would be rewarded for staying, but then went back on their word when they folded in highly cowardly fashion in the face of an angry and stupid populist mob.
I have a few responses to those points. They are 1) Bullshit; 2) bullshit; 3) bullshit, plus of course; 4) bullshit. Lastly, there is 5) Boo-Fucking-Hoo. You dog.
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Also, there’s this: let’s just say, Jake, that you’re telling the truth, that you don’t know anything about this toxic portfolio. If that’s the case, then why the fuck does anyone need to retain you at an exorbitant salary to help unwind that very portfolio? If these transactions aren’t and never were your expertise, then where the hell is your value here?
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I mean, half of Wall Street is unemployed right now. There are plenty of unemployed traders out there whose resumes don’t include such entries as “Worked for years at small unit of AIG that helped destroy the universe; throughout that time was completely ignorant of burgeoning global disaster unfolding 5 feet from my desk.”
The idea that other companies would be so eager to pass over the seas of truly innocent available people in order to scoop up some still-employed veteran of AIGFP — and that they would be so enthusiastic in their pursuit of said AIGFP employees that AIG would need to pay those AIGFP folks million-plus retention bonuses to get them to stay — is so ludicrous it almost defies comment.
Another candidate for the Argentine solution. But DeSantis whining about losing his bonus is understandable, but why the hell the New York Times found it necessary to print his sniffles, isn’t. sure, it’s always been the newspaper of the vested interests, but this blatantly?
larry
March 28, 2009 at 12:14 ammatt,
you certainly are not one of the brightest bloggers I have ever read. like our President, some attorney generals and several members of congress, you seem to need to label most AIG leaders as “guilty” without a trial. to paraphrase you, your post “is so ludicrous it almost defies comment”.