Poor Jake!
An A.I.G. EVP vented on the New York Times opinion page today (3.25.09). Jake DeSantis is quitting because he has been betrayed by the company that has paid him to make money for them trading “Commodities, Energy, (and) Derivatives” according to his public profile on the professional social media site, LinkedIn. Now A.I.G. (and most of the rest of us) expect him to give back the +/- million buck bonus he was paid earlier this month.
Jake says it’s unfair that A.I.G. is reneging on the deal they promised him. That the division where he labored 10-14 hours a day was not responsible for the “credit swaps” that sent A.I.G. reeling. That he had agreed to work for $1 a year on the belief that he would be rewarded for his effort with the big bonus in question. It was a deal, a “contract in writing,” and he should get to keep his money. So there!
Jake says, “I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute’s generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream.” Jake graduated from M.I.T. S.M., Materials Science in 1992. His thesis? "Chemical Vapor Deposition of Iridium and Rhodium from Organometallic Precursors conducted at the Los Alamos National Laboratory”, where he was an intern.
Bright guy, most of us can’t pronounce that stuff let alone understand what it is about. So where did this scientific genius head? To the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) where he worked in “Equity derivatives trading.” Isn’t that what’s being called “toxic” these days? After six years at UBS he moved to A.I.G.. Over the last eleven years Jake made a lot of money.
He says, “I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree.”
Hard work? Actually most would argue that commodity and derivative trading during the boom years that Jake has been at it, was a piece of cake. If -as he says- he and his fellows have been overpaid, why did it not occur to him earlier that the retention contracts he and others signed to hang in there and try to salvage the company that has made him rich were wrong? Is he saying that the sailors on a sinking ship should be given a contract assuring them of a big pay check before they agree to help to bail it out? Just because the hole in the bottom of the ship is in the bow doesn’t relieve those in the stern from the need to help save the ship.
That’s what it’s all about, Jake. If the American people -few of whom are as privileged as you- are going to throw billions of their hard earned dollars into saving your company, shouldn’t you be willing to work for a $1 a year and live off the fat of the land (all the money you made in the last eleven years) for a couple years to help save the company that has been so good to you? When little folks all over the country are being asked to give up part of their earnings, why are you whining all the way back to your luxury life?
Where is the moral compass that allows your vindictive plan to be sure that the company that put you where you are and/or the taxpayers who are trying to save the company do not get one cent of the bonus that you are giving up. Where would you be if A.I.G. had been allowed to fail? There would be no bonus. Nor would there be most of the other goodies that assure that you and yours will live comfortably for the rest of your lives.
You stepped off the ethical high ground when it even crossed your mind that you should be paid to do the right thing. Maybe you didn't lose any money for your company but you are a loser Jake!
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