And now Back to your Regularly Scheduled Blog...

This should almost go on the Lizzy for President site, but I'm just annoyed so, I'm climbing on my soapbox here.

Please go check out this article: Lawmakers steamed over ritzy AIG retreat after bailout
I'll basically sum it up for you. Just mere DAYS after the government spent $85 billion dollars to bail out AIG, the company spent $440,000 for a "retreat" for it's executives. Golf... spa... banquets... posh rooms... Get that.. $440,000.

Now - even MORE crazy than that, is THIS guy:

But Eric Dinallo, superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department, said he could see the value of such a retreat under the circumstances.
"Having been at large global companies and knowing what condition AIG was in ... the absolute worst thing that could have happened" would have been for employees and underwriters in its life insurance subsidiary to flee the company.

"I do agree there is some profligate spending there, but the concept of bringing all the major employees together ... to ensure that the $85 billion could be as greatly as possible paid back would have been not a crazy corporate decision," Dinallo told the House committee.

EXCUSE ME??? Ok, I can see circling the wagons and figuring out how to manage this, but maybe this would have been a good time to put all the executives in a log cabin with no electricity and an outhouse. There was NO NEED for golfing and spaing (is that a word) and the like.

THIS is exactly why people were (and are) freaking out about the bailout. Because companies are so entirely out-of-touch with reality that there's a fear more will show this tremendous amount of stupidity. If my hard-earned tax money is going to refund the pension of some guy who worked in the mailroom of a bank for 40 years, I'm all for it. If my hard-earned tax money is going for a $350 a plate luncheon for mucky mucks to discuss their golden parachutes, then someone better make sure not to give me any sharp objects and the address of their corporate offices.

Ok... I'm done now... for now....

Actually - I know I'm not because I have another post dwelling within me but... I'll get to that later.

PS - Obama said that AIG should have to pay $440,000.00 back to the government. I agree.

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I'M HOMELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(for those of you joining the game late - being homeless is a GOOD thing.. my house in Minnesota has been on the market for over a year, and we were less that 2 weeks away from forclosure, but we closed today at 10 am. So, in this case, being homeless is VERY VERY good!)

T- 75 minutes

Okay, this won't be my only post for the day, but I just wanted to ask for uber-prayers and what-not... the closing on our house is in 75 minutes... PLEASE pray/what-not that everything goes smoothly.

And just to be a comment whore - if you could PLEASE leave a comment if you read this... just.. cause it'll make me feel better....

Stupidity in Corporate America

Update - So, I post this in the morning. I get home in the afternoon and there's a bill in my mailbox from my old cable company in Minnesota. I was a little miffed, since I know I paid them the final amount due. I open the envelope - there's a 3 page bill, and a return envelope, and a message on the bill that says "Your account is currently past due, please remit payment as soon as possible to avoid further action." And what's the amount due? -.53 THAT'S NEGATIVE 53 CENTS!!! They owe ME money, and yet they spent the money for 3 pages of bills, a return envelope and postage. THAT'S REDICULOUS!!! And then it really chaps my hide when I think of the letter I got from the President of the cable company last fall that said they were sorry but because of rising costs, they were going to have to raise the rates. WELL IF YOU DIDN'T DO STUFF LIKE THIS MAYBE YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I get to watch Fox News all day at work (Unless there's a playoff in a certain golf tournament and then I get to watch a golf)... so I hear about the economy and businesses having short falls and bad quarters. Well you know what, I've been around enough of corporate America these days to tell you that at least some of their trouble seems to come from plain, old fashioned stupid money and expense management. Examples I have seen:

A SINGLE peice of paper sent from a corproate office to a branch office. In a large envelope. The postage cost .88... for ONE piece of paper. This company has thousands of branches, so start doing some math... for just this one instance. Hmmmm

Checks sent for .22, .19, .12. And not just a few... LOTS of checks. With .42 cent postage on them. Printed on check stock. Yeah... there's NO WAY that makes sense.

Paying for utilities for years at a location that is no longer occupied by the company. One company I worked for I found places where we had been out of the location for close to 5 years, and had never had the utilities taken out of our name. In one case the total amount we had paid was well over $24,000. That's CRAZY.

When you just catch a glance of this kind of stuff, you think "eh, it's not that much money" but when to start to look deeply and start to do the math, these can be serious issues. And signs of stupidity that drive me NUTS