the ceo is getting lambasted for no reason all.

the guy was retired and came out of the peace of retirement to try too help. none of th congress people understood what he said about each small part of the investment portfolios is so distinct that only the specialist handling it could hope to resolve the problems.

they didn't pay any attention to what he said about the savings that AIG had made under his direction, snd why you couldn't plug anyone into the mix that had no experience with each type of contract.

i understand the public being pissed at the extreme BS "retention" bonuses, because that is easy to understand.

there is more at stake then the "160,000,000. much of which will be recouped.

if i were jumped on by some group like he was,, i'd give them back the dollar and tell them to fix it them selves.

Ed Liddy is a class act. He retired from Allstate a number of years ago and I had a lot of respect for the man. He led Allstate along a very conservative road and it's a company that's not asking for a handout today.

Agreed. The news quips of his appearance and testimony showed a circus.

Rick - No sh*t! If I was him I would have started laughing out loud, and when asked what I was laughing about I would have tossed a dollar on the floor and said kiss my a** as I walked out the door.

The whole grilling of Ed Liddy yesterday was a disgrace amounting to little more than a public flogging of a largely innocent player.

It was basically a bipartisan bash-fest, with each panel slimeball clamboring over the other to express their outrage - OUTRAGE!!! for the benefit of their constituents and future campaign ad footage. Stupid.

If you want to beat up some AIG folks, drag Martin Sullivan, Bob Willumstad, and Joe Cassano in there and rake THOSE guys over the coals as they so richly deserve.

I'll bring the eggs.

Wow, for once I agree with Rick. I thought he was going to start lambasting Liddy.

Guys, in case you haven't noticed, Congress does this kind of disgraceful thing all the time. They create a big mess by either commission or omission and then call in a bunch of businessmen and beat up on them mercilessly to deflect blame and pander to their gullible constituencies. Dodd and Frank are the absolute champions at this.

This is what happens when they don't have the big oil execs to kick around any more!

In November 1999, many Allstate agents were called into their supervisors' offices & handed a box of documents --the ''job in a box,'' they would come to call it --radically redefining their relationship with Allstate. Liddy had now decided that they be independent contractors. Their benefits, pensions included, would END.

The same meeting was being played out in Allstate offices nationwide. The company, which had more than 15,000 agents of various kinds, was "offering" all of its 6,400 employee agents -- the longest-serving agents, and those with the best benefits -- the same unrelenting terms. They could keep their jobs by forfeiting benefits that were, in some cases, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or they could give up their benefits and their jobs.

It was 10 months after Liddy took charge that the employee agents were given Allstate's take-it-or-leave-it offer. Inside the ''job in a box'' packages handed out that day was a booklet titled ''Preparing for the Future,'' which redefined the employment rules for employee agents. The tough new rules coincided with, and seemed designed to bolster, Allstate's widely heralded new plans to ''aggressively expand the company's sales . . . and streamline the way the company operates.''

In the meantime, the company retained all of the ongoing commissions from the agents who were forced to depart.

This is the same 2-faced scumbag who no pleads for hundreds of millions in UNEARNED bonuses for the "best & the brightest" of AIG.

These scum and their grandstanding political inquisitors should all be made to stand at the wall & shot.

[threadjack on]

Great speaking with you the other day, Rick. Also got your info/photos. Appreciate it & will respond today.

[threadjack off]

^ What say you JR ???? LOL

Morning Bro Bloody, guess this is a way a ***threadjack*****, sorry. No........I'm not.

Good morning, bro.

Guess "St. Liddy's" conscience after destroying the lives of many hard working Allstate insurance people is what's making him fight equally hard for so many undeserved bonuses of the AIG rich.

I deal directly with the agents and although it was a hard business decision, it worked.

It made the agents who just sat back and lived on their commission checks begin selling again or seek other employment.

The successful agents built up their agencies and prospered more than they ever would have with the old corporate agent structure. They ended up owning their business and were able to sell it, some for seven figures.

That versus a corporate agent owns nothing of the business and client base that he built up.

This whole sideshow is nothing but a government sponsored distraction aided, as usual, by the media. It is meant to take the public scrutinity away from the real outrage. Throwing hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of OUR good money after bad. And no end in sight.

^Just to play advocate here...... These employees that received the bonuses are the ones who were worked for the financial department. When these people took these jobs, they were told that their job would be to bring down all assets and ultimately close the department. The purpose of the bonuses was that these people were taking a job that had zero future. They were hired to go down with the ship. These execs could have worked somewhere with a future, so in order to entice them over, they had to over them a bonus. Not saying I agree or disagree, but it is something to think about you threaten killing them bloody (which is ridiculous and should be said on a public forum)

*shouldn't

"Hard business decision"???? That's the same approach used by fly by night brokerage houses who discard their employees once they have squeezed all the productivity out of them. Yeah, a few survive but the rest are discarded like yesterday's garbage and their remnants are looted by the management.

The commissions should rightfully be the agents NOT to be arbitraily stolen by the suits who live in their ivory towers & have NO idea what it takes to knock on doors day & night. These agents EARNED their money & it was up to them to determine their earning potential. They knew that. I doubt that many sat on the laurels & just stared out their windows as the "largesse" rolled in...

How Liddy can look a himself in the mirror as he "fights" for AIG bonuses after banrupting & stranding so many thousands of hard working Allstate agents is beyond comprehension.

^ I guess you are ignoring my post then?

Are you talking to me?

I gotta go but this Liddy's still a scumbag IMO.

I was talking to you. I had posted a response about the bonuses that wasn't about Liddy. I wasn't sure if you were upset about the bonuses or about Liddy. If it is Liddy, then I could care less about him. I could care less about the bonuses too, but just wanted to make sure everyone saw both sides.