Needed: Floor Wax For The Titanic

WTF is about as simple as it gets. I wish I was smart enough to run a company into the ground and get a bonus for having done so.

Bloomberg.com: U.S.:
“I was extremely disappointed -- but not surprised -- to learn that AIG will be awarding bonuses to the very division that drove the company into the ground,” said Representative Elijah Cummings, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in an e-mail. AIG shouldn’t be awarding “millions of unmerited dollars to employees while at the same time begging the U.S. government for financial life support.”

Maintaining Value

Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy, 62, has been providing data on employee compensation to Congress, saying retention programs are needed to keep the value of the units from eroding as AIG seeks buyers. The payments have drawn criticism from legislators including Cummings, 58, the Maryland Democrat who has said that the awards are unnecessary while employment markets are weak and has called for hearings into the compensation. The U.S. lost almost 2.6 million jobs in 2008."