NYT: Dear A.I.G., I Quit!

March 25, 2009 by Jeff · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Culture, Politics 

I hope Barack Obama, Timothy Geithner, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dood, Andrew Cuomo, Richard Blumenthal and all the pundits who have lead the AIG lynch mob are happy now:

The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group’s financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G.

DEAR Mr. Liddy,

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.

In a sane world Jake DeSantis’s letter would shame those who have lead the charge to unfairly tar and feather the many good people at AIG… The sad reality is none them will even understand its significance.

Related

Speak Your Mind

Everyone is welcome to share their views all I ask is that you observe a few basic rules the when posting:

    1. Be respectful - Name-calling, personal insults and “flaming” won’t be tolerated.
    2. Keep it clean - Comments that in my opinion are, (a) off-topic; (b) libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, pornographic, offensive, false, misleading, racist, homophibic or which otherwise violates or encourages others to violate any law, including intellectual property laws will be deleted.
    3. Don’t Spam. If you do your comments will be deleted.
    4. Please don’t assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. I believe in a civil discussion of the issues even though I may not agree with opinions expressed. As long as a commenter observes the rules I’ll let his or her comments stand.

If you'd like a picture to show with your comment, get a gravatar.