Great catch by Ryan Chittum who notes that lurking beneath the WSJ’s anodyne headline “At AIG, Benmosche Steers a Steady Course” is an anecdote worthy of a sociopath. Here’s what the company’s president and CEO has to say about public outrage over the payment of large bonuses at a bailed out insurer:
The uproar over bonuses “was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangman nooses, and all that-sort of like what we did in the Deep South [decades ago]. And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong.”
I’m gonna drop a little Slatepitch here and say that torturing and murdering someone are quite a bit worse than asking them to receive a lower bonus. The self-regard, egomania, and touchy defensiveness of the finance profession continue to amaze.
