What He Said....
Why I Have No Sympathy for Jake DeSantis
On Tuesday the New York Times ran on its op-ed page the resignation letter written by Jake DeSantis, a vice president of AIG's infamous financial products division. DeSantis essentially argues that he had nothing to do with the credit default swaps that nearly brought down the company (and the world economy), and that since he agreed to work for a $1 salary plus his bonus, AIG CEO Edward Liddy should have stood up for him and "innocent" executives like him.
The lawyer in me (I should really say "recovering lawyer," since I haven't practiced in 15 years) understands his point. He contracted to work with his salary essentially being his bonus, and after fulfilling his obligations (he argues that it was a form of public service, but let's just stick to the idea that he served the company), the CEO is asking him to forgo his pay. It's an argument, in strictly letter-of-the-law terms, I could comfortably make to a judge or jury.
But as a person, I am not the least bit moved by DeSantis's point of view, because over the last several years, he has tremendously profited from a larger financial culture that is completely out of whack. Those working in the financial industry made untold sums of money from a bubble that was bound to burst, and they did so in an environment that rewarded risk with no consequences for failure.
In other words, DeSantis has become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, with no worries about money for the rest of his life, at the expense of most Americans and the financial system as a whole, all by taking advantage of a set of rules that skewed in his favor. He profited from an industry that rejected decades of regulations and took crazy risks that a bubble could be sustained against all logic to the contrary, and that firm's could leverage themselves at unhealthy levels with no consequences. And now that some semblance of order is trying to be applied to the financial industry, with the bill being footed in billions of dollars by the American people, he has the audacity to complain that he is being treated unfairly? It's like someone finding a hole in the side of a bank vault and stopping by once a year to take millions of dollars from the structure, only to complain on the 15th trip when the hole has been sealed up. MOAR
On Tuesday the New York Times ran on its op-ed page the resignation letter written by Jake DeSantis, a vice president of AIG's infamous financial products division. DeSantis essentially argues that he had nothing to do with the credit default swaps that nearly brought down the company (and the world economy), and that since he agreed to work for a $1 salary plus his bonus, AIG CEO Edward Liddy should have stood up for him and "innocent" executives like him.
The lawyer in me (I should really say "recovering lawyer," since I haven't practiced in 15 years) understands his point. He contracted to work with his salary essentially being his bonus, and after fulfilling his obligations (he argues that it was a form of public service, but let's just stick to the idea that he served the company), the CEO is asking him to forgo his pay. It's an argument, in strictly letter-of-the-law terms, I could comfortably make to a judge or jury.
But as a person, I am not the least bit moved by DeSantis's point of view, because over the last several years, he has tremendously profited from a larger financial culture that is completely out of whack. Those working in the financial industry made untold sums of money from a bubble that was bound to burst, and they did so in an environment that rewarded risk with no consequences for failure.
In other words, DeSantis has become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, with no worries about money for the rest of his life, at the expense of most Americans and the financial system as a whole, all by taking advantage of a set of rules that skewed in his favor. He profited from an industry that rejected decades of regulations and took crazy risks that a bubble could be sustained against all logic to the contrary, and that firm's could leverage themselves at unhealthy levels with no consequences. And now that some semblance of order is trying to be applied to the financial industry, with the bill being footed in billions of dollars by the American people, he has the audacity to complain that he is being treated unfairly? It's like someone finding a hole in the side of a bank vault and stopping by once a year to take millions of dollars from the structure, only to complain on the 15th trip when the hole has been sealed up. MOAR