Make the AIG's bonus millions transparent: put the deals on the web

Make AIG's $121 million (The New York Times says it is $165 million) in bonus payments transparent: post them on the the web.

In the race to see which company can prove to be the greatest fool in the this whole, sordid financial meltdown, AIG has pulled into solid first place. While I suppose it is we the taxpayer that ends up being the biggest fool of all, the decision and insistence to pay out $121 million in bonus money -- a big chunk of which goes to the unit from where a lot of the financial foolishness sprung -- wins the award for greatest callous disregard of taxpayer money. AIG has started revealing which companies were handed our bailout money, how about which employees were handed our bailout bonus money. 

Okay, so in the scheme of many, many billions of bailout money, $121 million is small change. I have one small suggestion. Delete the names of the bonus recipients if you want (AIG says that privacy concerns prevent the disclosure) but how about using the web to let us see these bonus deals?

I mean what could be the possible basis for those bonus payouts? Did someone get a bonus based on their ability to do the most harm to the world financial system? Once upon a time, you did your job and got a paycheck. If you did something above and beyond you got a bonus. 

According to the Washington Post, attorneys that have looked over these bonus agreements say they are ironclad and must be paid? This is also the first time in my memory that a lawyer -- you know people paid to bring lawsuits -- says there is no suit and you have to pay up. 

I mean we the taxpayers do indeed essentially won AIG at this point. Even in my small town, once a year all the salaries of the town employees are printed in a town report. If a whole town can get to see the salary of the $25,000 a year custodian, how about the multimillion bonus boy? 

The bonus contracts should at least be made available to all those business school grads who want to learn how to get paid even if you have done the best job you can at wrecking the economy.