I'm F@!*%cking Mad!!!

Evil

I am outraged. OUTRAGED!!!

Over what? I dunno. Someone please throw me a suggestion at what to be outraged about. I just don't want to feel left out. Being outraged seems to be the popular thing to do these days, thanks to the TV talking heads like Rick Santelli, Jon Stewart, etc.

I've been listening to talking heads debate this AIG "retention" bonus. I'm wondering if it's really the case that AIG needs these folks, i.e., they do a specialized job and there just aren't that many people who you can bring in off the street to clean up this mess. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since it seems plausible enough. Anyone have a better grasp of this?

Since I am a marketer by trade, I can only suggest fluffy marketing-related ideas. So here's one:

It's hard to get rid of these AIG employees and bring in replacements, even if they have the skills. Who wants to work for AIG? Ugh. They should create a subsidiary of the company and call it something like the Economic Recovery Group (ERG). When offer letters go out from ERG, they should be signed by President Obama himself. Employees of ERG will make a very competitive wall street salary and be eligible for nice bonus packages based on performance. And just in general, the new employees will feel like they're doing something for their country (in addition to having a job), instead of working for a shitty company like AIG. I imagine there are at least a good handful of ex-Lehman, ex-Bear, ex-Merrill folks worth picking up.