Seems that Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit has quit and sent his resignation letter to the New York Times.
It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context:
I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.
After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.
I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.
You and I have never met or spoken to each other, so I’d like to tell you about myself. I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute’s generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream.
[….]
The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.
So what am I to do? There’s no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree.
That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need.
On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients.
This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear.
Mr. Liddy, I wish you success in your commitment to return the money extended by the American government, and luck with the continued unwinding of the company’s diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I’ll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what’s happened this past week I can’t remain much longer — there is too much bad blood. I’m not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I’ll leave under my own power and will not need to be “shoved out the door.”
Of course, this has generated a good deal of Conservative outrage, which you can sample at the end of this entry. The links marked in red are, for the most part, Conservative. The blue ones, of course are Democrats or liberals. One thing that I must say that I agree with, is this comment from a Blogger who calls himself “The Anonymous Liberal“:
But the reality is this: when companies fail, lots of innocent people get screwed. Lots of promises aren’t kept. That’s why companies declare bankruptcy: because they can’t afford to live up to their promises. Had the government allowed AIG to fail last fall, DeSantis wouldn’t have received anything. He’d be like many other people who woke up one morning to find their lives turned upside down by this recession. On second thought, given that Mr. DeSantis can apparently afford to give his entire $750,000 bonus to charity, I suspect he’d be much better off than most people who have suffered through the failure of their employer.
It’s striking to me that the very same people who are outraged by DeSantis’s treatment showed no sympathy at all for the nation’s autoworkers. In fact, they were angrily demanding that these workers (who make a small fraction of what DeSantis makes) agree to give up their “luxurious” health benefits and agree to salary reductions. These workers too had been promised things by their employers, but their complaints fell on deaf, even hostile ears. If their companies were going to be saved by taxpayer money (at a fraction of the cost of bailing out AIG), well these workers were just going to have to suck it up and take the hit.
The fact that the plight of a millionaire executive (one who actually received his promised bonus) elicits such sympathy from the Right, but the plight of blue collar assembly line workers doesn’t says a lot about the ideological prism through which many conservatives view the world. They simply identify with DeSantis in a way they don’t with many of the other victims of this recession.
I could not have put that any better. I too sat here seething with anger, as I watched Wilsonian Neo-Conservatives screaming at the top of their lungs at the autoworkers; “Screw Them!”, “Let them Fail”, “To hell with Detroit!” and so on. Seeing my own Father is a retired General Motors worker. The only Conservatives who were sticking up for the middle class, was myself and Pat Buchanan.
So, while I am sympathetic towards this guy; I am also aware that there are many others out there, that are hurting and are out of work, or have lost thier jobs, due to the stupidity of this company and others like it.
Others: The Moderate Voice, The Daily Dish, Megan McArdle, Swampland, The Swamp, The New Republic, Michelle Malkin, Salon, Political Machine, Right Pundits, Obsidian Wings, The Anonymous Liberal, Commentary, Gawker, Don Surber, JustOneMinute, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Foundry, Simply Left Behind, Samizdata.net, AmSpecBlog, Six Meat Buffet, Wizbang and Power Line