So, what do you do when the U.S. government hands you $85 billion to bail out your company after you screw up?
Well, party, of course!
At least, that's what some of the folks at insurance giant AIG must have thought. Just days after the feds bankrolled them to keep them from going under, a bunch of their execs decided the first thing to do was to celebrate by going to a retreat at a luxurious California hotel.
They enjoyed lounging around in lavish rooms, getting massages, facials and pedicures at a fancy spa and eating snooty restaurant food, all paid for by $440,000 of the taxpayer money so generously given to them.
While you were reeling from the eviction notice, informing you that your house is being foreclosed on, or trying to find another job because the present economic crisis caused you to be laid off, all without any helpful intervention from the feds, these folks were living large.
Of course, once this news was discovered, AIG was repentant and willing to pay back the $440,000 and fire those frivolous execs, right?
Not exactly.
They now want more money from the government and, worst of all, they may get it.