I was worried he might not squeeze in "pitchfork" into his latest rant but yeah, it's in there at the beginning. His rant on Friday asked why everyone was picking on AIG? Why pick on them because there were so many problems for years with executive pay, yet none of us populists ever argued against it. Um, what? That's of course completely wrong because many of us have been fuming about this for years and writing about it.
Now that the AIG bonus debacle has passed, Cramer has a bone to pick with the pitchfork-wielding insta-populists that so railed against the company: Where have you been for the last eight years?Uhhh, Cramer may not have noticed, but there was an election that resulted in a change of power. No? The GOP never wanted to bother with regulations and in fact, they cut them back. To be fair to Cramer, the Democrats have rarely been known to have much of a spine in these situations out of fear of being called a communist by the Republicans. Even now, the Democrats are only doing something (however little that may be) because voters are furious. It's less Washington and more the voters who are pushing this issue.
Executives padded their paychecks for President George W. Bush’s entire term, Cramer said Friday, but these critics were silent the whole time. Plus, there were tax cuts for the rich, wholesale deregulation, unchecked short selling – how come there were no congressional hearings then?
Well, Congress is the epicenter of this class war now, Cramer said. Just look at that bonus-tax bill. Executives of TARP-participating companies who make more than $250,000 have to pay 90% of their bonuses to the government. Strange, though, that not a hearing took place prior to the financial crisis. There was little regulation during the run-up to the meltdown, and even less enforcement of what rules there were.
The problem with AIG that multi-multi-multi-millionaires like Cramer miss over cocktails in the Hamptons is that this was the last straw. People *have* had it with those other disgusting examples of too much pay for worthless CEOs and Republican tax policies that only benefit the elite. That's the point you f'ing idiot. AIG on it's own is just another example of too much pay but it happened during an economic meltdown and it's the taxpayers who are now footing the bill. The nation has had ridiculous CEO pay rammed down there throats for years and there was little that could be done in the past when these companies were receiving full support both from shareholders and the market. Now that the conditions have changed, everything has changed.
