Welfare kings.

[MFAWG]

http://www.nytimes.com/20...ss/15AIG.html?_r=1&hp

WASHINGTON — The American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses by Sunday to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year.

[gleek]

But the bonuses will go forward because lawyers said the firm was contractually obligated to pay them.

Shouldn't a "bonus" be tied to some measure of performance AND be awarded optionally? If it's "contractually obligated", then it's NOT a *goshdarn* bonus. They're trying to make it sound like money they were expected to receive, and if that's the case, they could do themselves a favor by not calling it a "bonus". They should be calling it "deferred compensation", if anything.